Lightning Strikes Twice
by Inferna Firesword
Summary: Sequel to Heroes and Halflings. Fifty years have passed since Stara left Rohaya, thinking she had left her time fighting the halflings behind. But when Fate decides otherwise, it will take everything she and Stiaye have to defeat the new threat.
1. Prologue

sLightning Strikes Twice – Prologue

A dark night had fallen over a small island, about twelve square kio total in landmass. As the baleful eyes of the pale moon glared at the world below, a pool of silver liquid churned like a sea in miniature. Then a tall, armored being slid out of the shadows, darkness clinging to her like spider webs reluctant to release their captive. Her mask, a Kanohi Crast, shone wickedly in the light, heralding deeds of evil that were soon to come.

Then more of her kind came. One was carrying a white-armored being, much smaller than his captors. The other walked alone, his head high, like he was a king on the field of battle.

"Is it ready?" the first asked, her voice thunderous even though her tones were hushed.

The one carrying the unconscious being nodded. "I'm ready to extract his shadow, Tageria." Though the voice of this being was harsh and hard to read, it was undoubtedly female.

"And you?" Tageria's black eyes pierced the mask of the male. "This whole effort rides on your cooperation."

"I'm ready," he said, his voice steady, betraying no fear.

"Then, Hecate," the leader said, turning back to the other female, "you may begin."

In response, Hecate seemed to relax, like she had been concentrating on maintaining something else. About a nano-second later, the smaller being stirred and moaned. The Makuta held her hand over him, and he stiffened suddenly, as tendrils of slimy black poured off him, and congealed into a black version of him, whose black eyes gleamed with malice. Hecate lowered her hand and the black shadow stopped flowing out of him. Tageria plucked up the shadow being and flung it into the silver pool, which immediately began to hiss and churn like an angry sea.

"Hurry!" Hecate urged the male Makuta.

Behind his Kanohi Jutlin, he shut his eyes. A scant instant later, green and black antidermis flowed out of his armor, which sagged and collapsed as its occupant vacated it and steered his substance into the pool that now was barely containing tidal waves of what was clearly energized protodermis. The moment the antidermis touched it, the mysterious liquid turned black and frothed even harder.

"Please work," murmured Hecate. Whether she was praying for her brother Makuta's sake or the sake of their mission was debatable.

Then the entire pool froze in mid-action, held its position for about a minute, then began to reform, taking a shape roughly two bio tall. By the time it had finished, the pool was completely dry, and a figure that held a horrific resemblance to the white captive that was thrashing helplessly in Hecate's hold was stepping out of the empty hollow. Slimy black with shots of ghostly white was the color of his armor, and as he retrieved his mask and tools, they changed color as well.

Tageria flicked a finger, and a metal frame shot forward from the shadows that cloaked them. As Hecate fitted the figure into braces imbedded in the metal, chains of black energy sprang to life, wrapping around his wrists and ankles. The progenitor taken care of, the group leader turned to face the Brotherhood's new halfling.

"What is your name – now and before?" she hissed.

His red eyes narrowed as the halfling realized he had to look up to meet Tageria's gaze. "Deimos, both then and now."

"And do you know your mission?"

"Yes."

"Then I expect that when you achieve this, you will contact us."

Tageria's eyes narrowed to dark slits as she stared Deimos down. "Our last three halflings failed us. Don't make their mistakes."

With that threat, Tageria and Hecate vanished, leaving Deimos and his progenitor on the bleak isle. After a quick glance to the north, where the faint outlines of other islands could be seen, he dragged the metal frame away into the shadows, vanishing as if they had never had been there. The only evidence that they had was the dried-up hollow and the echoes of their maleficent whispers.

**XxX**


	2. Sight

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 1

Dawn was breaking over the Amari island chain. But since it was close to the beginning of storm season, the sky was grey and rumbling with thunder, rain, and lightning – disastrous for unprepared travelers, but it was the kind of weather Xi-Matoran like Ariadne reveled in.

High up in the mountains, she held a telescope up to the eyepiece of her gold Huna and scanned the horizon. Clustered in the west, three islands – _Why are they even called islands?_ she asked herself. _They barely have a square kio of landmass on each of them_ – were empty except for the fruit groves that covered most of their skimpy area. The Matoran of Ariadne's village brought their boats to them every other day and tended to the trees, harvesting the ripe fruit when it was there, before returning home.

For a moment, she imagined being back home. . . visiting with her friends, her own, cozy little hut, listening to Turaga Stara's stories around the village fire every night. . . she smacked herself hard, knocking her mask askew. Even as she straightened it back into position, Ariadne chided herself for daydreaming when she ought to be on surveillance. While they had a mostly peaceful existence here in the Amari Islands, there were sometimes pirates that based themselves even further south of this place.

Returning her telescope to its position over her eyehole, she turned her gaze to the east. The black, bleak isle of Notus glared back at her, and she fought off a wave of shivers. Only Stara and Stiaye could bear to tread the island for any amount of time, and even they were unnerved by the atmosphere that swathed the place. "It's like . . . like a thousand beings were watching us, even though we were the only ones there," Stara had described to her once, and she had been reluctant to provide further details.

The Matoran of Lightning now turned her gaze due south, expecting to see the long-barren, rocky island Enyo. She saw Enyo, all right, but she saw a roughly-hewn fortress as well, resting where had none had been before. Frowning in surprise, she fiddled with the telescope for a little bit, then turned toward the other Matoran who was with her, checking the supply cache stored at the lookout post.

"Charybdis!"

"Don't call me that," Charybdis – or Chary, as she preferred to be called – answered automatically.

"Whatever. I need you to use your mask for a minute."

Chary jogged over to her friend, the magnifying lenses in her Akaku whirring to life. "Use it on what?" she asked, staring out at the five islands that made up the chain, along with their own.

"Enyo. Do you see a fortress there, or am I just seeing things?"

After she adjusted the lenses to the proper frequency, Chary shook her head. "It's definitely real – I can see it, too."

Ariadne frowned, now perplexed. "What's a fortress doing there – and who built it?"

"Does it matter?" the other Xi-Matoran retorted. "Either way, we need to get back to Xi-Koro and tell this to the Turaga." Before her friend could reply, she retrieved her pack, shut the lid on the metal supply cache, and began heading down the trail out of the mountains. After a quick look back at the island, Ariadne put away her telescope in her pack and followed.

The way down was steep, and plentiful when it came to loose pebbles and rocks. However, the Matoran that populated the Amari chain hadn't thrived this long without becoming wise to the merciless moves of the mountains. Ariadne and Chary made it out and into the foothills where Xi-Koro was located within two hours.

Their footsteps slowed, and both Matoran lowered their heads in respect as they passed the cemetery. Headstones carved from marble bore the names of those whose lives had been claimed by the passage of time and the dangers of the islands. Among those of the latter group were Luxa and Narissa, who had been killed by Makuta Kiria with aid from the spiteful Xi-Matoran Sekmet. Their deaths by electricity had been blamed on Toa Stara, and had led to her exile. It wasn't until the intervention of the Toa of Water Selvan that had sparked Sekmet's confession nearly fifty years ago had allowed her to return home. The deception by one of their own would always be a stigma on the Matoran of the village, despite that she had forgiven them for it.

Past the graveyard was the pathway to a naturally-formed temple – the Xi-Kini. Within was the Elemental Well, the place where the Toa of Lightning of their chain would sacrifice their power to become Turaga. Every time she passed the Kini, Ariadne would always fall silent out of awe, from the memories of the generations of Toa whose lives as heroes began and ended with the well.

Finally, they reached the curving walls of Xi-Koro, with a steady stream of people going in and out of the village. Chary wove a greeting to one of the guards on the walls, and she wove back as they passed through and into the village.

Xi-Matoran filled the marketplace, trading various goods they got from the outposts of other, nearby islands. The two lookouts, weaving quickly through the controlled chaos, made their way to the village's heart.

One of the huts there contained the suva, which had last been used 45 years ago when Stara had sacrificed her power and became Turaga in the wake of Turaga Reya's fatal illness. Another hut was the home of the current Toa, at the moment traveling abroad. The last was Stara's, and it was this one that Charybdis knocked on.

"Come in."

Opening the door, both Xi-Matoran walked inside. Stara rose from her chair, her five-pronged staff leaning untouched by her desk as usual. During her exile, Stara had served for 800 years on the exotic island of Rohaya, which was alive with the consciousness of a being that was as old as the universe itself. Those heroes eventually adapted to the unforgiving, living landscape by growing stronger physically, both through hard work and the grace of their benefactor, making even older, more experienced heroes like the Toa Metru seem weaker in comparison. Even as a Turaga, Stara's gained strength was still in her limbs, making her an above-average elder.

The Turaga of Lightning listened carefully to the report Chary and Ariadne made. After it was finished, she frowned, walked over to her desk again, and leafed through a few tablets. "None of the other surveillance teams mentioned a fortress on Enyo over the last few weeks. Are you sure that it's real?" The two Matoran couldn't blame Stara for being reluctant to decide on the information's credibility – she knew better than anyone what could happen when evidence was misread. The duo had been there when she had been exiled, and also had been present when she had been declared innocent and had been called home.

"We both saw it, plain as day," Chary replied.

"Well . . ." Stara vanished into another room and returned with a Noble Kanohi Iden. Obviously, she had retrieved it from the closet of spare Kanohi she kept for herself, the current Toa, and the Matoran who needed them. "I think this calls for a visit, spirit-style."

Ariadne wanted to argue, but she had been Stara's right-hand Matoran for decades. She knew when the Turaga had made up her mind about something, it took the strength of a Zivon to get her to reconsider. Besides, in her spirit form, Stara couldn't get hurt. What could possibly happen?

As if to counteract that unspoken question, Stara fixed her in the gaze of her intense emerald eyes. "If I wake up, and I can't answer the questions you present me with . . ." she let her sentence trail off.

Both Xi-Matoran nodded and drew their daggers. If Stara couldn't answer questions she ought to know well, they would assume that an imposter was possessing her, and would destroy her body.

Assured by their response, Stara seated herself in her chair again and fitted the Mask of Spirit over her own Kanohi Ceray. Instantly, her body loosened and sagged backwards as her spirit vacated the area. Ariadne and Chary exchanged glances, than settled in to wait for the Turaga to return.

**XxX**


	3. Deimos

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 2

Stara's mind was whirling as she flew above her home. She could never use an Iden without remembering Kronus, her old leader and a Toa of Gravity. He had given her a home on Rohaya when she had been turned away from everywhere else, and had given her a life to live there. He had also given her much else – he had given her his life so she could live. He had been killed by Halfling Kiria years before, by a shadow bolt that had been meant for her. Unknowingly to all at the time, he had also allowed her to live so she could survive to return home from exile.

Halflings. Stara grimaced as the word seeped into her brain. For Mata Nui's sake, she had had enough halfling-caused trouble in her life with just those three on Rohaya. Yet she had a feeling that another of those half Makuta, half Toa beings had invaded her life again.

Now above Enyo, Stara studied the stronghold that had seemingly sprung up overnight. It was made of granite, but had been hastily made: Stara could see cracks in it already. There was not much else of interest to be gleaned from the exterior, so she went straight through the walls to investigate further.

After a few minutes exploration through the two-story building, she came to a large chamber. Standing in the center of it was a black figure about six feet tall. Streaks of ghostly white were spaced all over his body and Mask of Corruption like tiger stripes. In his hands were two longswords that had a substance she recognized as Hiziz poison coated thickly over its blades. The poison was rare and incredibly hard to come by, but it was coveted by unscrupulous fighters and assassins because of its effect on the organic tissue of an enemy – it caused excruciating pain to those physically exposed to it.

The mysterious being was standing right before a huge, ugly frame that hummed with shadow energy. She couldn't see what was in it, but she didn't need to. She had seen this contraption before. The word that was associated with this vile invention ran through her head. _Progenitor._

Her fears had been confirmed. There was a halfling on her island chain.

Once her initial shock had passed, Stara began to plan a way to end this menace. Stiaye wasn't in the region, and without her, Stara couldn't save the progenitor. That only left her with one choice, one she hated having to make.

She had to destroy the progenitor.

Ignoring the acid taste that flowed into her "mouth" at the idea, the Turaga began working on an efficient way to do this. She had a Noble Mask of Stealth back in Xi-Koro, and there was an electrical storm due in a few days. If she could sneak inside with some kind of blade . . .

Before she could bring her train of thought any farther, the halfling suddenly altered his density and drifted up through the ceiling, giving Stara an unobstructed view of the rack's occupant.

At the sight, memories burst forth in her mind. Images of a place. A conflict. A voice.

A face.

A name.

Reeling from the flood, Stara turned tail and shot away from the room. As she flew, three facts filled her mind.

_There's a halfling in my island chain._

_The records were wrong,_ and, most importantly,

_I can't kill him._

So preoccupied was she, it took her a few minutes to realize she was above her body. But when she tried to return to herself, she couldn't.

The realization hit her like a bolt of her own lightning. _Someone's inhabiting my body!_

**XxX**

Ariadne started as Stara's eyes snapped open and she straightened up. Almost immediately, she noticed the Turaga's movements were not as smooth as they usually were, but more robotic. That put her senses on high alert.

Chary stuck to the procedure. "What was your predecessor's name?" she asked briskly.

Stara didn't respond immediately, but slowly turned her head, eyes flat and blank. Then she spoke, but her voice was hollow, and sounded like she was speaking from the bottom of a deep well. Instinctively, both knew it at the same time. _This was not Stara._

"Danger . . . here. Deimos . . . Halfling. Ajax . . . Notus . . . hurry. Find . . ." the spirit said in broken sentences.

Ariadne had been told that when a being's spirit possessed another's soulless body, it took a few minutes to gain full control over the being's body. So far, this unknown only had minor motor functions accessed and speech. If they were trying to take over Xi-Koro this way, they had already botched the job, but the two had to move fast before they could seize control of the Turaga's elemental powers.

Chary and Ariadne leapt forward. Chary yanked the staff away from the reach of the Turaga's body, while Ariadne held her knife up to Stara's throat.

"Be gone!" Ariadne cried out, trying to sound serious about the task she might possibly have to perform. "Leave, or I'll destroy the Turaga's body, and you with it!"

Instantly, the light of consciousness left her eyes, and Stara's body slumped over again as the unnamed being abandoned the body. Scant seconds later, Stara shot up as someone else took control, but cringed backward from the blade at her throat.

"What was your predecessor's name?" Charybdis asked again, a little sharper than before.

"Reya."

"The island you served on?"

"Rohaya."

"Your team leader's name and element?"

"Kronus, Gravity."

"The names of the halflings?"

"Fyre, Tayra, and Kiria."

"All right, you're good," Ariadne said, lowering her knife in relief. "Someone used your body a few seconds ago. I'm not sure what they meant by what they said: something about a halfling – probably called Deimos, from the words said – and something about Notus and someone called Ajax. The only thing that really made sense was that there's danger here."

Stara nodded. "Whoever that was, they were well informed. There's a halfing in the Amari archipelago. We need Stiaye here, and fast."

"I'll get Athena," volunteered Charybdis as she ran from the hut. Athena was the fastest messenger in Xi-Koro – she joked it was because of her Kakama-style mask. The only reason Stiaye had been sent to bring Stara back from exile over Athena was that Turaga Reya had thought Stara would be less inclined to listen to Athena, as she had been a strong supporter of Sekmet. Meanwhile, Stara herself climbed out of her chair, moved to her desk, and began to scratch out a message on a stone tablet.

"I don't understand why we need Stiaye to stop this 'Deimos,'" added Ariadne a few minutes later. "You've faced halflings before and won – why couldn't you do it again? Sure, you're a Turaga now, but you're not an average elder, though."

She didn't say anything in reply, just continued to scratch out the letter. For a moment, the Matoran of Lightning wondered if she had offended her leader somehow with her questions. But as she wrapped the stone tablet in metal foil to protect the message, Stara smiled sadly at her right-hand Matoran. "I'm flattered by your beliefs, Ariadne, but the progenitor is different than the spawners of those other halflings – for all I know, the rules might be different for this one. And I have . . . emotional issues with taking that being's life."

Before she could ask further, Athena entered the hut, her light blue eyes sparkling eagerly. Stara handed the messenger the tablet. "Get this to Southern Continent, and send this off to Shi-Nui – that's where Stiaye is now." Athena nodded and shot off.

"I ask again – why couldn't you kill him?" Ariadne asked, wincing at the slightly uncaring tone she held for the progenitor.

"I didn't like the idea of taking an innocent life – even to save my people. But the identity of that being made the already difficult task simply impossible to do." She paused, then uttered the words that Ariadne knew would close off this topic to further debate.

"It was Nuju."

**XxX**


	4. Stiaye

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 3

_The funeral was hugely attended by the Xi-Matoran, and led by Toa Reya. Subtle looks were often directed at a certain Matoran who wore a mask in the shape of a Kanohi Hau, who was very aware of these covert looks. She seemed to be preening herself in their glowing looks of admiration, despite the fact that they were supposed to be showing respect for the dead at this time._

_After the last handful of dirt was tossed into Turaga Taynai's grave, Reya vanished into her hut and came back with a topaz roughly the size of her fist – the Toa Stone she had used to keep Taynai alive for years. Covering it with her hands, an outflow of gold energy formed around them, as a small amount of Toa power was transferred into it. Before the eyes of all the Matoran of Lightning, she set down the reactivated Toa Stone on the Suva, then began her trek to the Xi-Kini, and the Elemental Well_.

In the canyonlands outside the port city of Shi-Nui, a battle of the minds was taking place.

On both sides, a Toa was glaring at their opponent as they locked themselves in a duel of wills. In the center of the battleground, a stone about three bio in diameter trembled as it hovered in mid-air. Sometimes it twitched in one direction or the other, but then the will of the other Toa would force it to halt again; a stalemate that could probably last forever if their strength lasted.

Outside the marked field, two other Toa were watching their teammates grapple with each other. "Who are you rooting for?" a Pakari-masked Toa of Earth asked his Water counterpart, who went by the name of Amphitrite.

Behind her Mahiki, she frowned. "Well, normally I'd be cheering for her," she said slowly, pointing at the Toa of Lightning. "But in this case . . . Go Japoro!" she suddenly yelled, beaming at the Toa of Ice.

Japoro flashed a grateful smile at her, while the Toa of Lightning scowled. "Oh, that's nice," muttered Stiaye to herself. "When it's me against someone else, you're on my side. When _he's_ in the line of fire, though . . ." Fueled by her annoyance, she gave a mental shove with her Mask of Telekinesis and thrust the boulder a few bio forward towards the Toa of Ice, who barely managed to make it stationary again as he pitted himself against her.

Now both Amphitrite and Enki, her Toa of Earth companion, began jumping up and down, whooping and hollering like they were at a Kohli championship game.

"Come on, Japoro!" yelled Amphitrite.

"Get 'em, Stiaye!" shouted Enki, earning him an infuriated glare from the Toa of Water.

Bolstered by their cheering, both Toa redoubled their efforts, and the rock shuddered back and forth as both Matatu users shoved at it. After about two minutes, the rock decided that it couldn't take the pressure they were exerting on it anymore.

With the sound of shattering stone, the boulder exploded into gravel and dust, leaving the contestants coughing as a sudden gust of wind blew it into their faces.

"All right," Enki said calmly, like this happened every day. "That's a tie, I think."

As the pair made their way to the Toa of Ice and Lightning, said Toa retrieved their tools and bumped fists. "Nice job, Stiaye," Japoro said with a friendly smile most Toa of Ice never even considered wearing. "Personally, I think you might've won if that rock had held a bit longer."

"Think whatever you like, Japoro, I still think you won," gushed Amphitrite as she draped one of her cobalt arms over his gunmetal shoulders. Stiaye exchanged an amused smile with Enki as the Toa of Ice shot uneasy looks at them that all but said _Save me._ It was no secret amongst the team that the Toa of Water really liked Japoro, but that didn't keep him from feeling uncomfortable when she publicly showed that affection. He often relied on Stiaye to bail him out when that happened, which created a bit of tension between the two females – Amphitrite thought that the Toa of Lightning was her competition.

Noticing Stiaye's slight reluctance to get herself involved again, Enki took pity on her (sort of) and stepped in. "Amph, give Japoro some space, will ya? Or do I have to bring Eurus into this?"

Japoro mouthed the words _Thank you_ as the Toa of Water spun around – taking her arm off him as she did so – as she and Stiaye yelled "No!" in perfect unison at the mention of the Toa of Air. Eurus was a great teammate and a notorious prankster that never failed to make them all laugh with his antics, but he also never failed to hit on one of the two female Toa at least once when they hung out.

"Point made," the Toa of Water said, reluctantly moving a few feet away from the Toa of Ice. Said Toa didn't seem to share that emotion as space was put between them.

"Come on. They've had their fun, now let's have ours," Enki said, slowly swinging his chain mace in open invitation. Amphitrite grinned in anticipation, her huffiness forgotten – or at least about to be channeled into something else. "Best two out of three?" she suggested, unsheathing her aqua sword.

"Let's get out of here," Stiaye suggested hastily to the other Toa as they made a quick retreat from the canyon. "Before Amph floods this place."

As they made their way back to the city, Stiaye idly willed a ribbon of lightning out from her spear and commanded it to hover, sparks occasionally branching off from it, before her as she and Japoro walked. After she shaped it into a sphere, a bird, and a pretty good imitation of a Metru Nui Knowledge Tower, she got bored and willed in back into herself.

She cast a sidelong look at the Toa of Ice beside her. Despite what Amphitrite might think, her friendship with Japoro was simply one that was easy as breathing to maintain. Part of it was because he wasn't cut from the same mold as so many Toa of Ice – he was more inclined to let his emotions show then others of his element, who generally would set up a wall around themselves that isolated them from their peers.

They rounded a bend in the path, and came out overlooking Shi-Nui.

As always when she looked at the city, Stayed couldn't help but marvel at the ingenuity of the Matoran that populated it. Shi-Nui was a major trading city in the north, making it a prime target for thieves and pirates. In response to that threat, the city had been designed for easy defense. The largest buildings – those of the administrative sectors and the city's Kini – were farther inland, while the smallest were closer to the docks. All of the stone structures had flat roofs that gradually lowered the closer the building in question was to the sea, enabling defenders to launch Kanoka over the heads of fellow Matoran without striking them. Add to that the fact that the density of the tribes was very diverse – there were just as many Matoran of Fire as there were Matoran of the Green – and they were formidable, even without six Toa and a Turaga backing them up.

As they approached the inland gate, the three guards that were positioned there snapped to attention the instant they spotted the two Toa. The captain, a Le-Matoran named Demetri, saluted them as he opened the doors and allowed them in.

As usual, the administrative district had a muted feeling to the action – something that changed drastically in the industrial district. Matoran and their vehicles still moved in the streets, but it was somewhat quieter then it would be normally, out of respect to those who did important work in the tall office buildings.

After about five minutes of wandering the streets, sometimes chatting with the passersby, Stiaye and Japoro reached the building used exclusively by the Toa. The seven-story building contained a medical bay, quarters for all six Toa – Japoro, Enki, Eurus, Amphitrite, Castor, and Stiaye herself – a lab for investigations into serious crimes like murder, and other things as well, such as a workshop for Japoro to use for building and testing his inventions.

As Japoro unlatched the door, the Toa of Lightning braced herself: Eurus had a tendency to place trip wires right where his teammates walked in. However, a blast of ice revealed none, so the pair found it safe to walk through the foyer without stumbling.

Both made their way into the living room. The place had large, Rahi-armor couches, smooth stone floors, and various pieces of artwork sitting in niches on the walls and hanging on delicate chains from the ceiling. Japoro settled himself down on one of the couches and retrieved a tablet that had the designs for one of his latest inventions. And that's when one of those artworks – a huge, blown-glass orb – decided to take a tumble –

"OW!!"

–Straight onto the Toa of Ice's head.

As Stiaye fell backwards onto another couch laughing helplessly, Japoro rubbed the place on his head where the ball had hit him. Mercifully, the glass was strong enough that it hadn't shattered from either of the two impacts. (Hitting his head and the floor.) Of course, that meant it hurt that much more.

"How did that happen?" Stiaye asked after she regained control somewhat, though fits of giggles still bubbled forth every few seconds. "I checked the chain it was hanging on yesterday; there's no way that it would break just like that."

"Unless . . ." Japoro began, suspicions racing through his head.

A burst of uncontrolled mirth in the next room confirmed them all. "Eurus!" both yelled as the Toa of Air himself appeared in the doorway.

Behind his Mask of Possibilities, Eurus's grey eyes streamed with tears of laughter and his shoulders shook with the same emotion. Japoro shot to his feet, a string of curses that could strip a fully-grown Takea shark of all its scales sliding off his tongue at the prankster. A battle of words had been initiated, and the Toa of Air rose to the occasion, his loaded mouth already being put to use.

Stiaye, wincing from the noise – neither were restraining their volume – barely managed to hear the mail flap click in the front. She quickly made her out, massaging her ears as the sounds of Japoro and Eurus's verbal warfare faded slightly.

Toa of the Green Castor was already there, leafing through the metal-wrapped tablets and looking briefly at the addressees' names. He paused as Stiaye came up to him, and handed her one addressed to her. "What are those two yelling about?" he asked as he set down the rest of the mail.

"Eurus thought it would be funny to drop a ball on Japoro's head with his mask," she replied, flipping over the tablet and peeling off the metal as she spoke, making no move to look at the return address. She had only one correspondent – Turaga Stara of her home island, who exchanged letters with her to keep each other in the know about what was happening in their respective regions. It always amazed her that when they would speak to each other mask to mask they would regard each other with the respect due to their social standings, but when they put their words down into stone, they would fade, and it was like they were Matoran again, hanging out in Xi-Koro and daring each other to stay the night on Notus.

"Well, let's get this settled over," Castor said, throwing back his teal-armored shoulders and unlimbering his staff, whose prongs were in the shape of intertwined vines. "Coming, Stiaye?" he asked as he began to make his way down the hall, where the yells were only slightly beginning to die down.

When Stiaye didn't reply – which struck him as odd, since she had no problem helping him break up fights – he turned around. His pale green eyes widened in shock as he realized what happened.

"Stiaye!"

For the Toa of Lightning had become a figure reminiscent to a statue, staring in open-mouthed shock at the letter in her hands.

This was not the news she had been expecting to get, and it was not good at all.

**XxX**

Creds for Shi-Nui's design goes to Christopher Paolini, while the creds for the character of Japoro comes from one of my BZPower buds, Japoro – Toa of Ice. (Thanks again, buddy! ^_^)


	5. Council

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 4

_Night had fallen, and the Matoran of Xi-Koro had gathered around the Suva, situated beneath a wood roof supported by four rods of metal. The Hau-masked Matoran was the closest to the stone structure, with everyone having one eye on her. The other eye they were using to watch the moon climb through the sky, waiting for it to reach its peck in the deep blue yonder sprinkled with stars._

_As the glowing orb came to rest above the tallest mountain on the island, Mount Moonpeak, the Suva shone with raw energy. All present drew breath, eyes shining with anticipation._

Six Toa and a Turaga of Water were sitting in the meeting room, five pairs of eyes fixed on the Toa of Lightning sitting alone at the end of the long table. The tablet was lying on the table just in front of her.

Stiaye, for some strange reason, felt neither horrified nor frightened by the atmosphere, but absurdly guilty. Guilty! What was she feeling guilty for? What had she done to feel like this?

_Maybe it's that this feels like an interrogation,_ a little voice in her head said. _Or that your teammates now see you as the heir to a legacy, where it never mattered to them before . . . and that there's danger that your predecessor fought against back at your home . . . _

Stiaye put a mental lid on the voice as Eurus spoke. It was hard enough staying with the collective train of thought of this meeting without dealing with this other one going on in her head.

"Read that big paragraph again," he asked, no trace of her jokester self in the Toa of Air's voice. He – along with everyone else – was serious and listening attentively as the threat of halflings had been unveiled to them.

After Stiaye had been able to recover enough to tell Castor what had unnerved her about a half an hour ago, he had alerted Turaga Enchidna, got Japoro and Eurus to shut up and get Enki and Amphitrite back in the city for a meeting, and managed to bring Stiaye to the Turaga's apartments.

This was the third time she had to read this particular paragraph – the first time had been when she had first opened the letter, and she had just read it for the second time. Now her count would be at three, and it was still as hard to make the words coming from her mouth sound real, and not sound like something out of the stories that had been told about Stara over the years.

"_Over the years I have hoped that since the Brotherhood had collapsed and the survivors had been scattered, that the threat of their foul half creatures, those we collectively call halflings, had died along with the organization. But my hopes, it seems, were in vain. A halfling has invaded the Amari islands. _

"_Worse, the progenitor is someone whose life my soul abhors from taking: Nuju of Metru Nui. How it is possible for a creature that is half-Toa, half-Makuta to be created from a Turaga like this one is unknown to me. However, our situation is dire nonetheless."_

A long pause stretched afterwards. Then Enki broke the silence.

"I have to agree with Stara there. I thought since the Brotherhood no longer was in existence, they couldn't create anything like halflings."

All of them nodded as they remembered. About three months after the Rohayan Halflings had been destroyed, a huge force had launched an attack on the main Brotherhood fortress on Destral, crushing the stronghold and slaying many members. Roughly around the same time, the legendary Toa Nuva had succeeded in awakening the Great Spirit. The small amount of Makuta that had escaped the genocide had vanished into the shadows they were forever bound to. Many attempts had been made to find them, but they were ridiculously tricky to find and false leads appeared everywhere.

"Apparently, we were wrong on that count," Japoro said grimly.

Castor and the Turaga remained quiet, but both were considering the facts before them, and looking at the younger Toa of Lightning with new eyes. Until this moment, they had known of the legends and stories that had grown up around Stiaye's friend from the events fifty years ago – heck, they had told those stories over and over again in the past – but they had never thought much of them. But now, they saw her as the former Toa of Lightning's heir to her legacy of legends and evil enemies.

"Nuju was that one Stara had fallen in love with in the stories, correct?" Amphitrite asked. Stiaye nodded in reply, and the Toa of Water said softly, "I really can't blame Stara's choice not to kill him – any one of us would suffer great emotional pain if we were faced with the choice of killing one of our own."

"The Turaga said that she wanted you to travel to Rohaya, didn't she?" asked Enki. Stiaye nodded and read that section again.

"_The island Rohaya is not far from Shi-Nui. Since we had left some tablets behind in the fortress that had information on Halflings, it would be useful for you to bring them home with you. With this threat looming over us, every piece of info helps."_

"Rohaya is very close. And this is your home we're talking about, Stiaye," Castor said gently, leaving it clear that this was her choice to make. "But we'll need all the help we can get to protect the city and alert the sailors, now that we know that halflings are back in the universe. But this is personal. We won't begrudge you of your decision."

**XxX**


	6. Jaswinder

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 5

_The light faded, and everyone looked to the Hau-masked Matoran. But that's all that greeted the eyes around her – a Matoran of Lightning, unchanged. Cries of surprise and shock filled the air, calling out to the Matoran, Sekmet. Then a single voice rose above the rest, and all eyes moved to a being standing at the back of the group, looking rather startled as she looked down at her new Toa self._

_One moment of silence prevailed over the area, one single minute of shocked quiet, before the citizens of Xi-Koro found their tongues again. Shouts of anger and denial cluttered the night air, as the Matoran took sides. Most sided with Sekmet, who shrieked accusations of her stealing what was rightfully hers at the new Toa Stara, who looked still shocked, but revived enough to pull back, making motions that said _I don't want to fight you._ But they didn't relent, and the storm of anger continued to surge at her._

The dawn was breaking, in all its gold and pink glory. Shi-Nui's inhabitants were, for the most part, asleep, save for the ones who had drawn the short stick for the night shift – or had just decided to get up early.

Stiaye was part of the latter group, packing her meager possessions for her journey home. A carving of her friends, a gem Enki had given her as a Naming Day gift, and a few other mementos of her time on the island was all she was bringing with her on the ship Castor had given her. According to him, its name meant in an ancient language "Indra of the Thunderbolt." Stiaye didn't have a clue what "Indra" meant, but she thought it was a fitting name for a ship meant for a Toa of her element.

"Make sure you don't give away my room to anyone while I'm gone," she had said to the Toa of the Green the night before, when she had said goodbye to the rest of her team: she would be gone by the time they woke up the next day. "Hate to think I'd be coming back without a place to stay."

Castor had given her that promise, along with his best wishes for success. Enki and Eurus had given her the same, along with ash bear hugs that had practically squeezed the life out of her. Amphitrite had hugged her as well, but her grip was gentler, and her eyes spoke volumes between two friends and sisters. Japoro had simply opted for a more customary fist clank, but his gaze was slightly vacant, like he was staring off into the distance. Stiaye's more rational side surmised that he was just trying not to think to hard about her inevitable departure, (and the fact he'd have to endure Amphitrite's PDA's without her help) but the part of her that knew the Toa of Ice told her that his mental gears were working overtime on something.

Stiaye shouldered her bag – which hardly weighed anything on her back – retrieved her spear, and left her room without a second look back. She quietly padded down the stairs, hearing the soft breathing of her friends as she slipped by their own quarters and left the building.

The Toa of Lightning walked through the streets of Shi-Nui, empty except for the occasional Matoran, who bowed to her when she passed. There was a reverence in their eyes she didn't like to see, which told her that the news had gotten out. She redoubled her pace, eager to be on the ship and out at sea.

Stiaye soon arrived at the docks. A Ga-Matoran ran up to her, flanked by two others. "Ye ship is ready, Stiaye," she said – mercifully without the awe her companions had in their eyes. "She is fully provisioned."

"Thank you, Arcelia," Staiye replied, meaning it more than just thanks for the news. "Indeed," she added, eyes widening slightly as she beheld the ship the Ga-Matoran was now indicating.

The vessel was sleek, screaming speed even when motionless. The main mast sported a huge sail, painted pale silver to match the hull. It was about thirty bio in length and half that in width, and had an air of grandeur about it, like it had been meant for royalty from some distant land instead of a lone Toa.

"Aye, she'll get you there," said Arcelia proudly, making the Toa suspect she had helped construct it. "Best of luck," she added as she moved on to other ships, practically dragging her gawking friends behind her.

"I'll need it," Stiaye muttered as she moved to the gangplank and boarded her ship, the _Jaswinder_.

The interior wasn't as sumptuous as the exterior had suggested, a source of relief for the Toa of Lightning: she sure didn't _feel_ special enough for a really grand ship. There were two sets of bedrooms, each with two sets of bunk berths set into the walls, a galley, the navigation room, and a few others, including a storage space for medical supplies. That was fully stocked, as well as the galley with food and fresh water.

Stiaye dropped her things down onto a berth and made her way back above, pausing only to retrieve the compass from the navigation room. She moved into the cockpit and checked the controls to insure they were all ready to go. Just as she made to raise the anchor with her mask, motion in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she frowned. Apparently, a coil of rope had moved all on its own. Staiye turned towards it and loosed a small lightning bolt towards the area.

Amazingly, it bounced off an invisible barrier and shot back towards her. Stiaye caught it with a net of willpower and cradled it as an orb of electricity in her palm.

"Alright," she called out sternly. "Whoever it is, come out now."

The area she was addressing shimmered and faded, revealing two Toa. "I have to admit, this is a pretty nice ship Castor gave you," Amphitrite said, her mask still glowing from its usage to hide them while she looked around, appraising the vessel. Japoro was standing beside her, his shield still raised in the same position it had been when he'd blocked the Toa of Lightning's shot.

"What are you doing here?" asked Stiaye.

"We're coming with you," the Toa of Ice responded calmly, like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

Before Staiye could say anything that would explain to them that she was doing this on her own, Amphitrite cut her off with a statement of her own. "What kind of friends would we be if we just let you take off into danger and leave us worrying if you'd be coming back? Besides, you know us too well. There's no way we're letting you have all the fun."

"You do know what you're asking, right?" Stiaye said, slightly dazed from their announcement. "You're asking to come and possibly fall to this half-being's power."

"We've heard the stories, Stiaye," Japoro replied, still sounding unmoved by what she had put forth. "We know what we're up against."

"And we're still determined to come," finished Amphitrite. "What's adventure without a little risk, after all?"

"Umm . . . okay," the Toa of Lightning said hesitantly, like she hadn't expected them to stay stalwart to their plan. "Well, if you're sure, you better go get the things you want to bring with you, and let Castor know –"

"Way ahead of you," Japoro cut her off, as he and the Toa of Water pull two small bags out from behind them. "We packed last night, and got up really early to beat you out here. And we left a note out in the main hall for Castor, he'll know."

Now that she thought about it, Stiaye did remember seeing a tablet sitting on the table, but hadn't stopped to read it, thinking that it wouldn't concern her. And there had been no sound coming from her friend's rooms when she had passed them earlier. She was way beyond surprise now, and she knew that she had no words that would make them change their minds. She nodded absently, and began to turn away, but looked back at them and asked them a question.

"How long have you been planning this out, Japoro?" she asked, knowing instinctively that it had been his plan, while Amphitrite had been the driving force behind it.

Japoro shrugged in response. "Amph suggested it about two minutes after we got out of that meeting, when you stayed with the Turaga and Castor."

"Well . . . alright then," Stiaye, a small smile breaking over her face as she considered the idea. Not only would she have some others backing her up, they would be her best friends, too.

"So, what's our destination, Captain Stiaye?" Amphitrite said, a hint of teasing in her voice as the honorific left her mouth.

"Raise the sails and the anchor, and let's set our eyes out to Rohaya!"

**XxX**

About five hours passed after the group had left the Shi-Nui docks, and the sailing couldn't be smoother. The weather was fair without a trace of threatening storm clouds to slow their progress, and Amphitrite's power over water had managed to create a strong current carrying them to the legendary island. Both the Toa of Ice and Water were excited to be going there: both had heard the stories many times, and they eagerly shot question after question at the Toa of Lightning. What was the terrain like? Were the fabled crystals of Razor's Edge as truly beautiful and deadly as they had been told? Were the evergreens of the mountain forests really as dark and mysterious as the stories said? And so they went on . . .

Stiaye told her friends all she knew, dazzling them with the fact that Stara had used a gem she had retrieved from the Razor's Edge as the Toa Stone she used to transform her from Matoran to Toa. Slowly, she warmed up to the new image she had as an heir to a legacy of legends – she still didn't like it, but it wasn't as hard to reconcile the idea as it had been back when she had first learned about the crisis back home in the Amari islands.

As the suns slowly began to slide down in the west, Japoro, stationed in the crow's nest, spotted a large blur on the horizon, marred by Rohaya's signature fog banks. He adjusted the lense in his mask and focused on the blur. Bit by bit, an image came into view, one with a huge amount of mountains – one had a molten peak on it. All the mountains were wreathed in dark forests. And in a shallow crescent made by the sea on a southern beach, a crumbling tower stood sentinel.

Eagerly, he leaned over the side facing the bridge, where Stiaye stood behind Amphitrite at the wheel. "Guys! Land ho!"

Both moved to the bow as fast as they could and leaned out as far as the guardrail would allow, shading their eyes. "Amph, get back to the bridge. We're almost there," the Toa of Lightning said softly.

As the minutes slipped by slowly, like time was unwilling to release its hold on them, the island grew greater in focus, more fine details emerging. Finally, when they moored beside the shore, the forest, now grown wild over the well-worn trails of Rahi and Toa alike, now was in perfect clarity.

Stiaye grinned as she quoted the words of Toa Kronus to Toa Metru Onewa and Vakama from years back. "Welcome to Rohaya."

**XxX**


	7. Rohaya

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 6

_Stara parried the electricity that Reya sent at her, then caught one that flew awry and absorbed it into her body._

"_Well done, Stara!" praised the Turaga, her amber eyes gleaming proudly at her disciple. She had always been tall for her kind – as a Toa she had been well over eight feet tall, and becoming a Turaga had not changed the fact she was tall._

_Stara, on the other hand, seemed upset somewhat. "Turaga," she said, and the elder refocused on the new Toa of Lightning. "Why must I endure Sekmet's torment? It hurts me to see some of my friends turn away from me. Why did you choose me over her? Were you hoping that this kind of backlash wouldn't happen?" A sour edge curled her voice at the end._

_Reya looked at the young Toa with sympathy. "I picked you over Sekmet for many reasons – reasons your sisters are not able to see now. You care for others, you aid others for the sake of being helpful instead of what you might get out of it. You have qualities that Sekmet lacks, something that her status does not fix. When your sisters realize that, they will accept you, Stara. Have faith in that."_

"Does everything seem really quiet to you, or is it just me?" Amphitrite asked to her friends as they climbed further inland.

Now that they thought of it, they hadn't been hearing much of anything other than the wind rustling the branches around them and their heavy breathing as the trio worked their way towards the fortress. The Toa of Ice and Water – who had only been on Rohaya in their imaginations while listening to the stories of that island – had thought that the harshness of the environment had been exaggerated by the storytellers. Right now, they were being proven wrong.

"I don't think it's you, Amph," Japoro said from the back of the group. "We ought to have heard some Rahi activity by now. But there's nothing – it's like a ghost island," he added with a shiver.

"I think I know why we haven't heard anything," Stiaye called back, as she scrambled up an eroding rock face about two bio high and lowered her spear down to her friends.

"Enlighten us, sister," Amphitrite said as she reached the top.

Even as she lowered her spear down for Japoro, Stiaye began talking again. "This was all in a tablet Stara showed me on the way back home fifty years ago. According to it, after a halfling dies, they leave a taint on the place they inhabited. That taint acts sort of like a repellant – it keeps Rahi, Toa, Matoran, Turaga, and other sentient creatures away from those places. The longer they stay, the stronger the taint, and the harder it is to resist it."

"So this might happen to that island the halfling is on now, at your island chain?" Japoro asked as he pulled himself over the edge.

"I'm pretty sure it will – though how it'll affect the other islands is beyond me at the moment. All the more important we get more info," the Toa of Lightning added, as she began to move on again.

The way was tough going, and the overgrown trails weren't helping at all, even with three sharp blades between them. Stiaye remembered the general direction of the stronghold, but the trees inhibited her sense of direction.

After ten minutes, the group halted for the third time. "Mata Nui," gasped Amphitrite as she sat down on a boulder. "And here I was thinking that those stories made Rohaya sound worse then it is!"

Stiaye was about to reply when an idea hit her. Quickly looking up to check the clearance of the branches, she returned her gaze to the Toa of Water and focused.

"Hey – wha?!" yelped the colbalt Toa as her boulder lifted off the ground and hovered six bio off the ground. Quickly scrambling to the top and onto her feet, she stared at her friend, even as she made the rock fly along at a manageable pace across the forest floor.

Japoro already had figured out what Stiaye had done and her intentions for it. At the moment, he looked ready to kick himself. "Why didn't I think of that?" he asked himself as he started to look for more boulders.

They found one, and Stiaye got on that one when Japoro made a platform of ice for himself. As soon as they were ready, the Toa of Ice and Lightning both used their Matatu to make their platforms fly, skirting the hard terrain and giving Stiaye a better view of where they were going.

Her vision clear, she scanned the horizon. "Alright. Over there is the Krycai volcano, and behind it is the entrance to the Razor's Edge. We saw the Mountains of Teeth and Dragon's Watchtower coming in, and the fortress is right between those two locations, along with Octipi Grotto. So we need to fly this way," she finished, making Japoro and Amphitrite fly in the direction she was indicating.

As they drew closer, a mound began to detach itself from the blackness. As the suns began to paint the sky with a mosaic of deep oranges and dusky blues, the mound showed to be the ruins of a building, roughly three stories tall when it had been its prime and a stoic sentry facing the west and the setting suns.

The group landed beside the rusting gates, which were beginning to fall off their hinges. The face loomed over them, foreboding despite the sorry condition it was in.

"Doesn't look like much," muttered Amphitrite as they walked inside. Of course, this was to be expected – the place had been abandoned for half a century.

As the three Toa walked into the hall behind the gate, the passage eventually divided in half: one kept going on forward, while the other veered to the left.

"We should split up," suggested the Toa of Lightning. "This fortress is huge, and we have a lot of ground to cover."

Japoro nodded and began to continue on down the straight hall while behind him, Amphitrite followed Stiaye down the other. The Ice Toa had to admit that the tablet the gold and silver Toa had referred to earlier was correct, that there was something profoundly _wrong_ about this place. There was a heavy air of oppressiveness in the air that seemed to weigh down on him like a burden of huge stone blocks, making him want to turn and run from this place, never to return, even though he had been eager to see this place.

Japoro, however, pushed his uneasiness to the back of his mind as he approached a crumbling door eroding in its frame. Not wanting to risk the doorknob – which was in similar condition – he used his Mask of Telekinesis to carefully lift the door's two pieces out of the way and leaned them in the hallway.

Inside was what was clearly a former barracks. Four bunk beds, same as the ones on the _Jaswinder_, were carved into the think stone walls, the sheets, pillows, and mattresses disintegrating on them. In the center of the wall opposite of the door was a four-pane window. The glass was long gone, probably destroyed by one of the sonic attacks that had hit the building at some point in the past. Beneath the window was another piece of stone furniture – a table. Resting on it was a stone tablet, somehow still intact.

Japoro picked it up and examined it. Depicted on it were four female Toa. One had a Calix, another had Kiril, and the third wore a Faxon. Those three had relaxed expressions, shown both on their faces and in their body language. They were laughing at some long-dead joke, and that laughter reached their eyes.

The fourth one, while being close to the group, while being part of it, seemed slightly distant from the others, like she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be there. She was laughing too, but her eyes reflected none of it. Her eyes carried a lonely, haunted look, like she was always on the edge, ready to run far away if someone caught her. Japoro glanced at her mask, and saw it was a Ceray – Stara's mask – and realized this was Stara herself, with some of her teammates.

Looking at the carving, the Toa of Ice began to feel the depth of how Stara's exile had hurt the Toa of Lightning. Japoro was a rather social person, but now he wondered if he would've been like Stara if Fate had dealt him that hand.

_I can't even imagine it: being surrounded by others that saw you as one of them, but always knowing the truth, feeling like an outsider looking in,_ he thought. Slightly uneasily, he put down the carving – feeling like he had violated some private memory – and left the room, since there was nothing useful in the room.

The hallway eventually brought Japoro to a large hall, with pillars carved into the walls. Those pillars once had been decorated with carved vines, but now the real thing was creeping in from the shattered windows. Faded splotches of long-gone liquid suggested that blood had been spilled here years before. A catch in his throat, the Toa of Ice looked around in awe, because he inwardly knew that this was where the Toa Metru and the surviving Toa Rohaya had fought and destroyed the halflings years before.

A screech from above made him look up, and for an absurd half-second, he thought that the ghost of the dead halfling Fyre was bearing down on him, because something green was leaping down towards him.

But that notion was banished swiftly as a hard, heavy weight slammed into him and knocked him to the floor. He tried to get back up, but the swift being was on him again in a heartflash, ready to fight.

**XxX**


	8. Aeolus

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 7

_The village was swathed in fire. Torches were lit, held aloft by the Matoran, eyes ablaze with hatred, fear, and anger as they clutched their weapons. In the village's center, Turaga Reya stood on a platform, her eyes grim, as she took in the scene before her._

_Stara was dragged forward in chains by twelve Xi-Matoran; they and the crowd were being extremely abusive to their hero, kicking her and spitting curses at the Lightning Toa as she stumbled in her walk towards the center of her village. Her eyes were wide with confusion, panic, and sheer shock, her chest heaving, like she couldn't believe what was happening to her._

_She was thrown down before her leader, in an ungainly sprawl before her predecessor's feet. She looked up, fear clouding her green eyes, searching for some small amount of pity in her eyes. She found none. The crowd's roars of abuse increased, until the Turaga of Lightning held her hands up for silence, which was incredibly eerie, and fixed the Toa crouching on her hands and knees with a cold stare of disgust._

"_Do you know why you have been brought before us, Stara?" she said, her voice full of contempt as she addressed her._

"_N-no, Reya," she stammered, her eyes still afraid, that fear reflecting into her voice as she spoke. She grew a bit stronger as she continued, rising to her knees as well. "Why have my sisters done this to me? What have I done to deserve more hate then before?"_

"_You ought to know, Stara," the Turaga said, her voice not defrosting a bit. She gestured to two stone slabs nearby, where two figures lay, as still as death. "Only you could have caused this."_

_Stara followed her hand with nervous eyes, which quickly widened with horror as she recognized those Matoran. One wore a mask in the Faxon style, while the other had one in the style of a Rau. Both lay atop their slabs, the scorch marks on their bodies' plain to see. They weren't marks created by fire, though – these had been caused by an excess of electricity that their natural resistances hadn't been able to cope with._

_Only one person in the Amari Islands had the power to do this._

"_No," she said, shaking her head in angry disbelief as she realized what they were suggesting. "No! I didn't . . ." She whirled around and stood in the same motion, cutting off whatever Reya was about to say. "I didn't cause this disaster! I swear by Mata Nui that I didn't! Please believe me!"_

"_There weren't any lightning storms, Stara," Sekmet said coldly. "Only you could've made my friends die like this."_

_Stara's eyes fell on a Matatu-bearing Matoran, pleading for support from her, but she shifted uneasily and looked away. The Toa's eyes were filled with despair as she witnessed the Matoran's actions._

"_The punishment for murder is and always has been exile," Reya said, her voice still as frosty as a snow-topped mountain. "Who votes for Stara's exile?"_

_In response, Sekmet's hand shot up quickly – too quickly, some might say. Slowly, more hands came up into the air. The Matatu Matoran looked uneasy, but voted along with the rest of the village. By the time the session was over, all the Matoran in Xi-Koro had voted for her exile._

"_The village has spoken," Reya said, her voice like an icicle as she addressed the Toa before her._

_Stara – whose face had fallen farther and farther still as she saw her former friends vote for her banishment – now seemed hollow, like an empty shell, like someone who had just lost everything that she ever held dear. Her eyes, however, still glowed, but they were frightening to look at: they were the angry eyes of one done a great injustice to. They were also cold, like she had captured the icy demeanor of the Turaga and placed it in her orbs. _

_Without any effort at all, she snapped her chains and plucked her staff away from one of her captors. The crowd pulled away from her, still maintaining their eerie silence, as she walked towards the gates of the village she was no longer a citizen of._

_She didn't turn around, didn't look back at them, until she was at the top of the hill overlooking the village. Her eyes glowed in the moonlight, reflecting the fires they carried._

_And then she was gone._

Two Toa – one cobalt blue, the other pale gold and silver – stood in a walled courtyard, the walls covered in rosevines that were growing out of control. At one time, they might have been part of a garden, but after fifty years of no Toa to keep them in check, they had taken over the stone and were crumbling the rock.

This was of little interest to the Toa; their attention was focused on the nineteen stone, rectangular mounds arranged in rows of six to a row. One stood alone, and it was this one that Stiaye was beside, her hand tracing the faded inscription carved into the face of it.

"Kronus," she read, her voice soft as she murmured the name. "Fifty years have passed, and yet you and your team remain here, in the place you died."

Amphitrite looked ready to say something, but whatever she had on the tip of her tongue was forgotten as a blast of ice shot over their heads and kept going into the evergreen forests.

"What was that?" Stiaye said, immediately on her feet, spear in hand.

"Japoro must be in trouble!" cried the Toa of Water, already racing back inside. "Come on!"

They raced through the corridors of crumbling stone until they reached the great hall. Japoro was there, but they also could see – _slightly_ – a green blur racing around the walls, too fast to make out any details or for the Toa of Ice to hit it. Japoro himself kept whirling around, trying to keep the person in sight, but failing; sometimes he doubled over as a blow connected with him.

Stiaye, her eyes widening as she followed the person's journey through the room, finally put her hands on either side of her head to make sure her orbs didn't come flying out of her head; she knew it couldn't happen, but she just wanted to make sure of the fact. Beside her, Amphitrite hissed under her breath, trying to track the blur herself, but being as successful as the Toa of Lightning. She wanted to get in there with her mask and help out Japoro, but she had to be sure that she wouldn't hurt him either.

"Can't you make that person slow down enough for me to hit him?" she finally said, a frustrated tone to her voice.

"I'll try." The Toa of Lightning's mask glowed faintly as she replied, focusing on the ground. Spikes of the rock erupted, but the blur avoided it with ease. Spikes on the walls and ceiling got similar responses. Finally, out of sheer annoyance, she gathered up a rough stone of mental energy and thrust it in the blur's path as it came around at Japoro again.

It stumbled, slowing down just a bit. That was all Amphitrite needed.

With a raw battle cry, she leapt forward into the room, using her mask to turn herself into perfect copy of her favorite Rahi – a fully-grown Muaka. In two bounds, she crossed the room and flung her new bulk onto the Toa of Ice's attacker, knocking him to the ground.

In the instant when the Toa of Water had knocked the person to the floor, Stiaye also managed to recognize the basic design of build, the collective identity of their adversary, and she shot to Japoro's side.

"Amph! Stop!

"It's a Toa!"

**XxX**

_Pain. Burning pain. That was all he could comprehend now. His sight was blurry; it was hard to dial in on a certain thing, but his mind was unbearably clear because of the burning pain. So when he saw that white blur below his hiding place, he automatically knew what to do. Attack._

_He dropped, already planning a way to wear down the foe below him – he wasn't the tactician of his team without reason. His favorite move – fighting with speed and surprise on his side – rose to the top of his mind, and he accepted it as his preferred tactic._

_It seemed to work – it was staggering the attacker. Then the stone spikes started to turn up, but they weren't something he couldn't handle; he had faced worse when he'd been flying Gukko through trees years ago. But then something he couldn't see got in his path, and he stumbled over that invisible thing in his path. Before he could recover, the Toa of Air was slammed into hard, like he had been knocked into a huge barrier – a barrier that had muscles and could move. _

_He hit the floor hard, and felt the breath get knocked out of him with an involuntary exhalation. The creature's hot breath cascaded over his body as claws tore at his armor. New pain joined the pain that was already there, but while the former pain was simply a hard, unrelenting burn coursing through him, this new pain was simply a series of sharp, sudden slashes._

_But then the slashes stopped as he heard a voice call out, "Amph, stop! It's a Toa!" _

_The Toa thanked his spirit star for that female voice – he assumed it was one of a Toa of Lightning, because it carried the slight crackle that all beings of that element had. Right now, he didn't care who it was: it sounded like the most beautiful voice in the universe to him, because the person who carried it was getting his attacker to stop._

_The heavy weight lifted off him, and he vaguely felt the presence of others. He wasn't paying much attention; the pain was had just jumped to a new high and he was trying not to fall unconscious from the pain. _

"_What's wrong with him?" asked a male voice – probably a Toa of Ice, judging from the slightly frosty undercurrent. _

"_Amph, check that shoulder wound," ordered the first female voice. This voice now had an air of authority in it, making him positive this being was the leader._

_Hands brushed his shoulder, examining his wounds. Then a small gasp. "What is that?"_

"_Hiziz poison." The male voice again, this time grim._

"_Amph, you have to wash that out of him. Hurry – he won't last long if you don't do it now."_

_A few seconds passed, than a delicious feeling of liquid flowing over him broke through the haze of pain that sharpened his mind beyond the point where it was bearable. The pain began to flow away with the tide of water, and he calmed himself as his sight cleared up._

**XxX**

Stiaye watched as Amphitrite knelt over the Toa of Air, a gentle tide of her element washing the sickly purple poison out of a huge gash in his left shoulder until it wasn't there anymore. Now that he was still – or at least as still one could be with burning poison in his system could be – she could see details about the Toa. He had two longswords belted to his side and wore a Kanohi Kadin, and his armor was in the style of Toa of Metru Nui. She wasn't sure if that meant if he came from that city originally or he had just visited the island at some point, though.

Finally, all the poison was removed from the Toa of Air's wound, and his spasms stopped as his pain faded. His eyes had been clouded by pain, but now with them being cleared up, she now saw that they were a dark red – the color of the Metru Toa of Air. He groaned, than slowly sat up, eyes now comprehending the scene around him.

"Who – who are you?" he asked, his voice soft and hoarse.

"I think we're the ones entitled to asking that first," Amphitrite said harshly; apparently she had not forgiven him for attacking her crush, even though he had been in pain during the time. "Who are you and where do you come from?"

"My name is Aeolus. I quick-come from Metru Nui," the Toa said, sounding slightly abashed at the Toa of Water's hostility. Stiaye shot an irritated glance at her before continuing. "Why are you here on Rohaya, when the taint of the halflings still lingers here?" She had heard recently that a new Toa team had turned up on the City of Legends from the sacrifice of the Toa Mahri's power. As of the old Turaga from the times before the Great Cataclysm, only Nuju, Vakama, and Matau remained.

"About a long-week ago, my team got quick-word that Nuju had vanished overnight, and none of the other Turaga-elders knew where he was. I was the fastest of my team-group, so our leader sent me out here to see if he was here. We had all heard the legends about this place; we all knew that it held a magnet-draw for him.

"However, I was attack-hurt by Frostelus on the way here, and one of their weapons hit me. I was late-knowing that it had poison on the blade. I started to sight-see badly, and took safe-refuge here. When you Toa of Ice came in, I quick-thought it was another Frostelus, and attacked. I'm deep sorry for that," Aeolus finished with an apologetic look at both Japoro and Amphitrite. "But I quick-ask again, who are you?" he added, now addressing Stiaye again.

Stiaye gave a smile that was both playful and resigned. "If you've heard the legends of Rohaya, I think you've heard of me at some point, even if it was just a footnote," she said. "I'm Stiaye, Toa of the Amari Islands."

Aeolus's eyes were now as round as Gukko eggs. "_The_ Stiaye?" he asked faintly, like he could be knocked over with a bird feather right then and there. Stiaye sighed and rolled her eyes, but nodded. "And I'm starting to get really annoyed at my predecessor right now," she added dryly to him, who quickly tried his best to lose the awed expression.

"But now I quick-think I'm allowed to ask something: why are _you_ here?" the Toa of Air asked the Toa of Lightning.

"Turaga Stara of my home asked us to come here and see if we could find anything that could find anything to stop a halfling back in the Amari Islands. I think it can solve the problem you were sent to answer, because Nuju is his progenitor."

The awe in Aeolus's eyes disappeared in a heartflash, replaced with a grim look. "That's worse-bad then any of us thought it could be. None of us thought halflings could be created from Turaga."

"Neither did we," agreed Japoro. "We came to see if we could find more tablets about halflings that could tell us more about them. Stiaye says that she and Stara left some behind when they left Rohaya fifty years ago."

"Well, I'll quick-help you with that," Aeolus said eagerly, rising to his feet in instant.

About an hour later, they all had scoured the fortress ruins, and between them had come up with about half a dozen tablets. Amphitrite yawned. "Mata Nui, I'm ready to go to sleep. Think we should head out to the _Jaswinder_?"

"Bit dark-late for that," corrected Aeolus, nodding at a broken window nearby. The other Toa followed his gaze, and realized that the suns had indeed set; the faint afterimages of the sunset were still in the sky that was mostly a dark, velvety blue.

"We'll have to sleep here tonight," decided Stiaye. Judging from her companions expressions, all of them seemed as eager to do that as much as she was – which was very little.

They spent about half an hour clearing out another barracks for the male Toa to sleep in – Stiaye and Amphitrite would be using the one Japoro had found earlier. It took them all a while because of the taint to fall asleep, but eventually they did succumb.

**XxX**


	9. Departure

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 8

_It was obvious that life wasn't being kind to her, if one could have seen Stara as she sat on the rock, hunched over herself as if to shelter herself from the bite of the autumn wind. Her face was drawn and hardened, the scars of days when she had been forced to go without food. Her body was mostly muscle, with little body fat to keep her warm, and the cloak she had obtained from some island long ago was ragged from use, now pale grey instead of the black it had been when she had gotten it. Despite the cruel, physical reminders of her hard life, she still looked as lovely as she had when she still had a place to call home: but it was a more dangerous beauty now. Her eyes still had that coldness they had had when she had been pronounced an exile, but the anger had long burned away and had its embers hidden deep within her. _

_She began to stand, to look for a place to stay the night later, when a call attracted her attention. She hesitated, but her curiosity overcame her. She ran towards the sound, and came upon a Toa of Gravity, fighting the creatures called Zyglak. He was hopelessly outnumbered, and he had no backup, as far as the exiled Toa of Lightning could see. _

_She nearly turned away, but she forced herself into the fight, staff crackling. She trusted her survival instincts to know when she should avoid places and people, but Stara wouldn't let them cause her to become what she had been accused of being._

_But when the Toa of Gravity Kronus offered her a place with his team, she was torn. Her instincts told her to turn and run for it, so he wouldn't be able to discover her secret, but her practical side told her accept, at least for the time being. But she couldn't shake that guilty feeling that followed her all the way to where his team lived._

Japoro woke up to the sound of arguing.

He was no stranger to arguments – the team back on Shi-Nui had fights all the time, mostly with Eurus and Enki against whoever they had pranked this time around. (Usually him.) But it usually happened when he was fully awake, and able to verbally counterattack.

Not this time.

Sitting up with a wince – the mattresses were another thing that made him wish they had gone to the _Jaswinder_ instead of staying here; the disintegration of the mattresses, sheets, and pillows wasn't helping make the stone more comfortable – he drowsily rose to his feet and staggered to the main hall where he had attempted to fight Aeolus. There, he saw who was fighting – Amphitrite and Aeolus, both waving their arms, holding annoyed expressions on their faces, and yelling at each other, despite the fact they were less than two feet from each other.

Stiaye was also up, looking as annoyed as they were, though the Toa of Ice was betting that it was for a different reason than the two other Toa. He crossed the room to join her, and she looked up at him, a look on her face that suggested her sleep had not been very restful, and that this row was making it worse.

"Do you really need to know?" the Toa of Lightning asked blearily, and he nodded in response. "Aeolus is insisting on accompanying us to the Amari Islands, but Amphitrite won't hear a word about it."

Japoro frowned, turning his gaze to the shouting pair for a brief second before refocusing on her. "Why's that? She ought to know that –"

"Yes, she knows that," she cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "She just doesn't want _him_ along."

"Do I really want to know why?"

"Her excuse is that we don't have enough supplies for four people on the _Jaswinder_, but he can tell she's lying as well as I can. The real excuse is that she doesn't want someone who attacked you along with us."

Had the Toa of Lightning been able to see past his mask, she would have seen the Toa of Ice's face turn a light shade of pink. He had been pretty sure that her whole defiance against Aeolus joining them had stemmed from Amphitrite's crush on him, but he had no idea that she would take it like this.

Regardless about her motives, he had to admit it – Aeolus had a right to ask, since it was his Turaga who was in danger here. Not to mention another Toa would even their chances against the halfling in the Lightning Toa's home. From the look in her eyes, Japoro guessed that she felt the same about it.

Stiaye finally stepped in and put an end to the spat. "Amph, I know how you feel about this. But we can't let petty disagreements keep us from accepting help when it offers itself to us. Aeolus," she added, turning to the Toa of Air, who had a look of relief in his eyes as he heard what she had degreed in her words: that he was going along with them. "Do you have any supplies that you brought here?"

He shook his head in response. "I bad-lost them when the Frostelus attacked. All I have are my sharp-swords."

"Then that'll be enough," Stiaye said, starting to leave the hall for the gate to the outside. The Toa of Water caught up to her before she could go far, though. "Are you out of your mind?" she hissed, soft enough so Japoro and Aeolus couldn't hear her. "Why should we bring him along? He attacked Japoro, for Mata Nui's sake!"

"Amph, he didn't know who it was," the other female said with a weary tone to her voice, like she had explained this a million times to her. "He can't be blamed for that – blame the Frostelus, if you want to blame someone about this."

"But –"

"_Enough_, Amph," Stiaye said, finally whirling around and looking the Toa of Water in the eye. She flinched at the sudden change in her eyes – like they had turned to stone. She sighed, suddenly shaking off the strange mood that had taken hold for a few scant seconds. "But, we'll have to make a side stop to Metru Nui on the way anyhow now, so he can tell the others about Nuju, so maybe the Turaga there will want him to stay there." Amphitrite grinned, now at ease with a possible chance to ditch the Toa of Air on the horizon.

The entire group trooped outside where the group had left their boulders the night before. Japoro's ice platform had melted overnight to half its original mass, but it wasn't something that couldn't be fixed easily. While Amphitrite absorbed the watery run-off, Japoro put a bit more ice energy to build it up again and freeze the slick surface of his miniature iceberg.

As before, the other three Toa used telekinesis to fly back to the _Jaswinder_. This time though, they were accompanied by Aeolus and his Kadin, who flew just beside the group. Amphitrite sometimes shot him annoyed looks – it was clear she wasn't enjoying the Toa of Air's company – but he pretended not to notice.

He did, however, have an edgy look on his face as he saw that they were traveling by boat. Once he saw the boat itself, though, he visibly relaxed – much to the Toa of Water's disappointment.

Stiaye paid little attention to the two Toa who were acting like rival wolves – or at least didn't show that she was. She retrieved a map and laid it out on a table, where she and Japoro began to plan out a route to the Amari Islands.

"Originally, I was intending to go the shortest way," muttered Stiaye as she traced a noticeably short path from Rohaya to the cluster that was her home. "But now it seems we'll have to make a detour via Metru Nui and go the path Stara and I took a long time ago. It's not faster, but we'll have to take it."

**XxX**

The _Jaswinder_ had pushed off about two hours before, and they were making better time then they possibly could have hoped. Aeolus turned out to be an amazing asset to the journey, by making sure the wind was pushing them in the right direction. Amphitrite's steering and current control helped as well.

Below in one of the empty rooms, Japoro and the Toa of Lightning were engaged in trying to read the tablets they had salvaged from the fortress, but were coming up empty. Stiaye had completely forgotten that they had left the tablets there for a reason: they were written in a language that neither she nor Stara had been able to read. Fifty years and a fresh pair of eyes had not changed this.

Frustrated, Stiaye set down her tablet and marched over to the window, watching the waves wash by them. An instant later, she saw Japoro's reflection in the glass, and turned to see that he was standing close behind her, looking less annoyed then her, but she knew him well enough to know that he was as exasperated as she was.

"Where's a Kanohi Rau when you need one?" she muttered sourly. He laid a hand on her shoulder – a regular calming technique between them, though they never did it when one of their teammates were around, so they didn't get the wrong idea about this thing they did.

Unfortunately, Amphitrite – who was passing by them after grabbing something to eat – happened to notice them through a crack between the door and the frame, and she indeed took the wrong way. Clenching her fist so hard she was running the risk of squishing the fruit she was holding in her hand, she stormed above to the bridge, passing the crow's nest as she did so.

"Hey, Amph!" yelled Aeolus from his vantage point in the nest – it hadn't taken him long to pick up on her nickname. "What's with the long-face?"

Getting called like that – even though she knew it was just because of his chutespeak – didn't make her mood any better, and she snapped out a reply without thinking. "I just saw Japoro put his hand on Stiaye, that's what's with the 'long-face'!"

With that, she stomped off. Had she looked back, she would have noticed that the Toa of Air had a rather stricken look in his eyes.

**XxX**


	10. Closer To The Truth

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 9

_Kronus, Toa of Gravity and the leader of the Toa Rohaya, walked along the parapet of the fortress his team lived in, knowing he'd find the person he wanted to find up here. Sure enough, Stara was staring out at the island before her, like she was looking for something out there that she couldn't see. She had recovered from the scars that her life as a lone wanderer had left, but something always lingered in her that made him think that she hadn't recovered from some scar that she hadn't told him or the two Toa of Healing on the team about._

"_Stara?"_

_She looked up, and met his gaze. That confirmed his suspicions more than it already had; they looked hurt, pained, like she was silently suffering._

"_Stara? Are you alright?" he asked again, coming to stand beside her._

"_As alright as I ever was," she replied, averting his gaze._

"'_As alright as you ever were?' Stara, what's troubling you? Tell me," he ordered, taking her chin between his fingers and making her look at him, even as he cringed mentally at the thought of Eos finding out about this, "so we can find a way to fix it."_

"_Kronus, it's not something you can fix," she said, but her voice was that of a being who was barely holding back sadness._

"_I'll be the judge of that. What's wrong? What did Althea and Catriona miss?"_

"_Kronus –" She finally broke, turning away. "I'm sorry, but I've been lying to you. I wasn't wandering because my people were killed, but because they exiled me!"_

_She took the silence that followed to be one of disgust towards her, and said quietly, "I should leave now."_

"_No." _

_The firm negative cut her to the quick. "Pardon?" she asked, still not looking back._

"_I'm not going to let something that made you come to us make you leave. You saved my life, and I won't see the one I owe my life to be driven away."_

A fierce rainstorm crashed above the chain of islands that Stara and her Matoran populated, though without thunder and lightning to make it all the harder. The village still stood, but the overall mood of it was a feeling of fear and grim determination. Stara was not one to keep the truth from her people, and now they all were on alert for possible threats from their new – and unwelcome – halfling neighbor. Charybdis was stationed almost permanently on the lookout post that overlooked the chain, keeping her vigil for danger.

Stara herself was, at the moment, hovering above the rack that held her love prisoner in her spirit form. She was trying to figure out the connection the spirit that had possessed her weeks before had hinted between "Deimos" and the island Notus – and what the halfling was here for.

_What draws you here?_ she thought about the halfling. _What could possibly want you to come here?_

She remembered Kiria, one of the Makuta-turned-halflings she had fought on Rohaya. According to Stiaye, she had come here as well for some reason, though why had been beyond them all. There had to be a connection between these two occurrences of Makuta/halflings coming to her home. But what was it?

**XxX**

Ariadne was on guard duty again, this time over the spiritless body of the Turaga. She had been doing this every day, since Stara had been going out to spy on their new neighbor each day, to try and figure out why he was here. So far, the spirit that had invaded Stara's body had not made another appearance, and the Xi-Matoran wasn't sure if she ought to be pleased about it or not – they may be able to gain more info from it if it returned.

As the thought crossed her mind, the body before her sat up in the chair Stara had left herself in. The Matoran began to speak the question that she had chosen to ask this time, but the words of the spirit that had taken up residence in the body made it unnecessary.

"Ajax . . . Spear . . . Notus . . . Deimos . . . connection . . ." gasped the spirit in its echoing voice.

Ariadne, who realized quickly that it was the same spirit that had possessed Stara before, kicked the staff away from the chair, unsheathed her knife, and laid its blade by the "Turaga's" throat. She was about to press down lightly and convince the spirit to leave, when the thought she had earlier returned to her. What if she could get something more from this person?

"Tell me more," she ordered, turning so her knife and her mask came into view of the spirit. "How can we find the connection?"

"Records . . . legends . . . past will tell . . ." But before Ariadne could ask any more, Stara's body slumped backwards as the unknown spirit vacated it.

The Matoran of Lightning sheathed her knife again, puzzled. She ought to tell Stara about this when she came back; she might know what this meant.

The thought had barely reached the top of her mind when the Turaga sat up again. Reacting instantly, the Matoran grabbed Stara's staff and held it in a ready position, even as she said, "What was the last thing Kronus said to you before he died?" Stara flinched slightly at Ariadne's loud tone, but answered with, "'Farewell, Stara, my sister. May fate be kinder to you in the coming days.'" Ariadne nodded and handed her the staff again, marveling inwardly how comfortably it had rested in her hands.

"Anything?" she asked, pushing her previous thoughts to the back of her mind.

Stara shook her head in frustration. "Nothing. I'm starting to wonder if I want that spirit in me again, so we can get some valid information from it."

"I think I can help with that," her right-hand Matoran said, repeating what had happened a few minutes earlier. "If we can read the histories, maybe we can find the key for this."

"It's worth a try," agreed the Turaga, getting to her feet as she spoke. "Let's find Steena; she could help us look."

The rain was still pelting down as hard as ever, but these two were used to it as they ran to Steena's hut, which was close to the walls that faced the mountains. Steena was the village's Chronicler, though a better name might be "History Keeper" instead of "Chronicler," since she recorded what happened in the universe as well as what happened in their area. At the moment, she was recording the threat of the halflings once again.

Ariadne rapped on the door quickly as they stood outside her home, rapidly getting soaked. Steena didn't take long to answer the door, and she quickly got them inside after she saw who was coming to call. She settled them into chairs and set to brewing hot tea for them. Behind her Zatth-style mask, her light green eyes glinted, though not nearly as brightly as Stara's.

After Ariadne told her what they knew, a frown furrowed her brow. "I can't imagine what legend could connect halflings to Notus, but I want that thing around here as much as you do. It's worth a shot."

Rising, she led them to the hut she kept her records, which was adjacent to her own. The walls had niches carved out of stone that held multiple dusty scrolls and tablets. All of them were neatly ordered by the number of years carved into the sides.

"Alright," Steena said, scanning the walls and groaning inwardly as she saw how much work they had to do. "I'm not sure what year the spirit was referring, but we ought to start from around the time of the Great Cataclysm."

All of them sat down after taking a box of records from around those years and began the process of reading the contents of the carved stone and flattened wood. For a while, the only sound was the crinkle of paper, the sound of one of them sipping their tea, or one of them shifting their weight. Occasionally, one of them would make a sound that hinted they might have found something useful, and they would all turn in that direction eagerly, only to be disappointed as she would then mutter, "False alarm. It's not going to help."

Scowling, Ariadne plopped the last tablet into her second box and went to put it back. "Why did that spirit have to give us such an obscure hint?" she muttered, not bothering to make her voice lower – she knew Stara and Steena were just as frustrated.

Just as she made to shove it back into the niche, she spotted something that looked like it had been shoved into the back of it, and frowned. "Steena, did you shove something behind this box?" she asked, even as she retrieved the large scroll from the cubby-hole. Despite the fact it was badly crumpled from being wedged between the two surfaces, it was still readable and in one piece.

"I don't think so," Steena replied, walking over to her and looking over Ariadne's shoulder as she carefully unrolled the paper. After a quick look at the date marked on the box, she added, "Now I know so. This was dated just after Turaga Taynai died and Stara replaced Reya as Toa. I wasn't Chronicler at the time."

"Who was?" Then the Turaga's right hand fell silent as they all remembered the name of Steena's predecessor.

"Luxa," breathed the group.

A moment of silence appeared again, but this time it was a silence of ones who were fitting the pieces of a complex puzzle together.

"Do you think –?" started Steena.

"Sekmet had access to the records, since she was Luxa's friend," answered Stara, beginning to pace rapidly, tapping her staff against the floor as she put her thoughts together. "If Kiria told her to, she might have been able to hide this behind the box, so we would never know what Kiria was after."

All the while, Ariadne had been reading the scroll, and now she spoke up. "Guys, I'm not sure how legitimate this is, but it fits in with what we know: two halflings coming here, Sekmet's treachery, all of it. Look at this!" she finished eagerly, passing it to Stara and Steena, who read it quickly, eyes widening as they processed the information they had before them.

"Do you think – After all, this is a legend," Steena said carefully.

"I used to think halflings were just legends, too," Stara said grimly, though her eyes sparkled at the thoughts that swirled in her mind. "I know better now. And while this might be a legend, it could explain _everything_." She looked out the window at the pouring rain. "And it's more important than ever now that Stiaye gets here soon."

**XxX**

This chapter majorly influenced by Cryoshell's "Closer to the Truth."


	11. Scrappers

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 10

"_Hey, Stara," called Amaya as the Toa of Lightning walked into the room they shared with Althea and Hesprides. "Have you noticed something about Kronus?"_

"_Not really," she replied as she began to rearrange the pillows on her bed. "Why do you ask?"_

"_It's just that . . ." the Toa of Water trailed off slightly, closed her eyes and shook her Faxon-bearing head and started again. "I've seen him at times . . . just looking at you, like he's trying to see something in you that no one else sees."_

"_You mean –"_

" –_That you think Kronus has a crush on her?" finished Hesprides as she teleported in like she always did – she never bothered to use the door. "Doubt it – hate to break it to ya, Stara, but he's been after Eos for years. I don't think he'd change just because there's someone new to look at."_

"_Yes, unlike me," Toa of Healing Althea cut in with a delicate shudder. "Took the better part of two years to get Paytah to stop making calf eyes at me when I came here."_

_Stara laughed slightly and held up her hands to pull the conversation to a halt. "I haven't got the interest that you think I have in him; sorry to disappoint you."_

Stiaye narrowed her eyes and delicately sidestepped to her left, closer to Aeolus, whose swords were held with a carefulness that astounded her, but his eyes blazed at the thought of a challenge. Across from them, Japoro and Amphitrite were in a similar position, both shadowing their opponent's moves as their eyes followed their movements with care.

The last three days hadn't been very smooth. The Toa of Water had been avoiding the company of the others as much as possible, and when she did, she had an edge to her voice that suggested that she was in a fit of temper. She snapped at the Toa of Air quite a bit, and while he had tried to stay out of it – Stiaye had warned him early on that she had a tendency to get hissy when she didn't like something, although he already seemed to know that from what he had said in reply – he couldn't stop himself from responding to some of the aggressive prompts she sent his way. And, like it or not, Japoro and Stiaye had been caught in the middle, with no seeable way to get out. They had slowed down, even as they drew closer to a shipping lane that led to the City of Legends.

Stiaye finally took matters into her own hands and ordered the group to drop the anchor for an hour or so. After that was settled, she dragged the whole group to one of the larger rooms below – the commons – and got them to see that they were going to have a tag-team sparring match.

To avoid any tension that wasn't already out on the table from turning up, she had made a point about pairing herself with Aeolus and Japoro with the Toa of Water. Amphitrite had looked noticeably pleased with the teaming.

Right now, the two females had been sashaying from side to side, trying to read the other's defense, while the males stayed still. Japoro and Amphitrite had the upper hand in terms of experience, as they had known each other for about one hundred years, and Aeolus and Stiaye had never fought side by side together in the short time they had known each other. However, experience didn't always determine victory.

Amphitrite finally got bored of her swaying and sent a tendril of water out of her saber to swirl around her, than it reformed into daggers that pointed at the other two Toa and sent them on their way. Midway to their target, they froze into ice, making them heavier, but making them much more deadly.

Mere inches from hitting the others, they froze in mid-air, Stiaye's Matatu glowing and giving her strategy away. She quickly flipped them in the opposite direction and charged the ice with electricity, and she and Aeolus sent them back at their creators in less than three seconds.

The Toa of Ice and Water used their command over their elements to shatter the pointed projectiles before they got close enough to wound. "Better match then I would have guessed," murmured Amphitrite to her partner, even as her mask glowed.

"Hey!" complained the other Toa as her illusion wrapped around them and blinded them to her and Japoro's attacks. To Aeolus, he was back in Le-Metru, while Stiaye just saw . . . blackness. Blinding blackness all around her. However, since she could still feel the floor beneath her feet, and could sense that Aeolus was close by – physically, at least – she had a good idea of where Amphitrite was. Trying her best to remember where the Toa of Water had been before she couldn't see anything, she lowered her spear and fired a blast of her element in that direction.

A yell and a sudden dissolving of the blackness around her confirmed that she had been right on target. A scorched Amphitrite was getting up from the floor, and Japoro was helping her up. Beside the Toa of Lightning, Aeolus started, than glared fiercely at the Toa of Water. Japoro returned the glare and began to lower his ice sword at Stiaye – for this, friendships meant nothing – but Amphitrite waved him off and fixed her eyes on Stiaye. "This is between me and her," she said, and the two male Toa retreated.

"Just like the first time, huh?" the Toa of Lightning said, smirking slightly as she watched the Toa of Water shape-shift into a sleeker version of a Muaka – the Shallows Cat. Baring her new fangs in a catty grin, her opponent began to slink forward as the Lightning Toa tensed.

Both male Toa, who had backed up to the wall, grinned in anticipation. The same thought filled their minds. _Catfight!_

Back nearly forty years ago, when Stiaye had first come to Shi-Nui, she had encountered Eurus and Enki in the streets, and they had brought her to Castor, Amphitrite, and Japoro, in hopes that she would become part of that team. Amphitrite had been unconditionally hostile to the newcomer, and had challenged her to a fight.

That memory returned to Stiaye as the Shallows Cat lunged at her. She whipped up her spear in front of her, but her opponent slammed into her and knocked her to the ground. She gasped from under the mass of cat for air.

"You . . . have no idea . . . how profoundly _wrong_ this feels." With that, the Toa of Lightning bunched up her legs and slammed her feet into the other's chest, sending her friend flying back and giving her a chance to get back up. Amphitrite/Shallows Cat shook off the attack and lunged for her again. But to the shock of everyone present, Stiaye didn't even move to avoid the charge.

"Why isn't she quick-moving?" muttered Aeolus as he watched.

Amphitrite leapt again –

–Only to pass through empty air.

Shock was plain on her cat features as she looked around, trying to see her quarry. Then laughter drew their attention up to the ceiling, where Stiaye was hanging upside down by telekinesis. She disengaged her mask power and flipped over so she was on her feet just inches from Amphitrite's face. She drew back her fist, electricity crackling over her clenched hand as she threw her punch.

Amphitrite flew backwards yet again; the shock was so great that she was forced out of her feline form and back into her Toa form. Stiaye was on her in a heartflash, but the laughing Toa of Water rose up her hands in surrender. "Okay, you win! You win!" she said, though there was no resentment her voice as she picked herself up.

After Aeolus ended up getting his "wings" clipped by a heavy coating of ice, courtesy of Japoro – but not without putting up a spectacular fight about it – they returned to the deck, this time with lowered tension.

**XxX**

The _Jaswinder_ began to pull into the docks of Ga-Metru for mooring two days later. Amphitrite looked excited – she had barely left Shi-Nui before, and she was eager to see at least part of the Metru of Water before leaving. Not to mention she was hoping that Aeolus would end up not joining for the rest of the journey.

Aeolus himself was tying them to the dock when a Ga-Matoran ran up to him, recognition in her eyes. "Toa Aeolus!" she gasped, a heavy sense of relief in her voice. "Thank the Great Spirit you're safe! Toa Arrik's been thinking about sending out search parties to find you, Turaga Jaller was all for it –"

"Relax-calm yourself, water-maiden." Aeolus cut her off, but said it in a voice that made her immediately swallow what she had been about to say. "I know where Turaga Nuju is, but the other Turaga-elders should be the first to learn-know."

The Ga-Matoran nodded, then turned her attention towards the other Toa that were moving across the deck to join the Toa of Air. "Who are they? And why are they here with you?"

"They quick-come from Shi-Nui, and they are on the same mission I was on, so to quick-speak. The Toa-hero of Ice is Japoro, and the Toa-hero of Water is Amphitrite, whom I owe my life to," he added, nodding in her direction. She managed to not send a grimace his way. "And the leader is Toa-hero of Lightning Stiaye," he finished, as she herself came up to join him and smiled down at the Matoran.

"Hello," she said pleasantly.

The Ga-Matoran's eyes were wide with amazement. Before she could ask the obvious next question, Aeolus beat her to the punch. "Yes, it's who quick-think it is. But I'd rather you didn't speak-spread it around – I think she'd rather that she didn't end up being sight-goggled at." Stiaye flashed a relived look at him: she still didn't like being looked like she belonged in a story, even though she was starting to get used to it.

"Of course," she said, bowing. "Is there anything we can do for you, Toa?"

Stiaye nodded. "We need to get provisioned for a two-week journey, probably for four people. We've got a ways to go to find Nuju." The Matoran nodded and took off, gathering a group of others to find what they needed.

Once she was out of earshot, Aeolus turned to Stiaye. "I'm going to see the others and speak-explain the bad-situation to them. I should be back quick-soon with their decision."

"Good luck," she said, and he rose with the power of his Kadin and took off for the huge building they could see in the city's center.

**XxX**

Much to Amphitrite's disappointment, Stiaye wouldn't let her off the _Jaswinder_.

"You'd attract attention even if you weren't with me," she argued. "And besides, I'm not sure if I can trust you out there. This isn't Shi-Nui, Amph – you can't go around acting like you own the streets, like you used to do back home," she added, exchanging a look with Japoro even as the Toa of Water reddened behind her mask. Stiaye had been referring to an incident when Amphitrite had chewed out a fruit seller for selling bad fruit, and only the intervention of Japoro and a visiting Toa of Air had kept her from really losing her temper.

"That Toa had a Kadin, didn't he?" Stiaye suddenly asked, as something registered in her mind.

"He did," Japoro slowly acknowledged the fact. "Think that might have been Aeolus?"

"Maybe. Amphitrite, you played that game of Vine Snag with him – did he ever tell you his name?"

The Toa of Water shook her head. "Not that I can remember – if he did, it was during that time when I was unconscious after that tree broke. But he did have a Kadin and used chute speak."

"It could have been Aeolus – we'll have to ask."

**XxX**

Aeolus returned about two hours later. By that time, the Ga-Matoran had loaded up the ship with more supplies and had left – mostly. Japoro had caught a few spying on them, probably trying to catch a glimpse of the legendary Stiaye.

Aeolus hadn't come back empty-handed, though. He was carrying a bag in his hands that was bulging tremendously. He had a euphoric expression on his face that spoke volumes about how the briefing had ended.

"You're coming with us," Stiaye said. It was a statement, not a question.

Aeolus nodded in reply. "The Turaga quick-talked it over with Arrik, my team leader, and they decided that it would be a good plan-idea to make sure someone here got Nuju back home alive." He shot a look at the Toa of Water as he spoke, but her expression gave none of her thoughts away.

"What's in the bag?" Japoro wanted to know.

In response, the Toa of Air pulled out a tablet and tossed it to his Ice counterpart in a chest pass. "Took a time-while for Turaga-elder Nuparu to convince the Archivists to let me take these with me."

Japoro examined it and found it to be another tablet about halflings. "Nice. How many did you get?" In reply, he pulled out nearly half a dozen other tablets.

"Great! But how about those other tablets that we couldn't translate?" asked Stiaye.

"Quick-thought of that," replied Aeolus as he pulled out a quartet of Great Kanohi Rau. "This should help, thought-assuming they're written in a valid language." Japoro grinned.

"Great! That whole language thing was getting me and Stiaye really annoyed," he laughed, bumping fists with the Toa of Lightning, who was fitting the Rau over her Matatu as they shared grins.

Amphitrite felt another flare of jealousy shoot up in her at the friendliness between them and scowled. As she walked off to try and get them moving, she caught a glimpse of Aeolus' expression, and was rather surprised by what she saw. She wouldn't have thought he would have felt jealous about something, like his face was explicitly proclaiming.

**XxX**

Credit to Kagha for the Vine Snag story. (It's called _Unexpected_; you can read it on BZP (but for the record, the pairing the story focuses on is purely fan-made =P))

Credit to Kini for Arikk.


	12. Moonlight

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 11

"_In the time before time, before the Cataclysm occurred and the Brotherhood of Makuta showed their true colors . . . in the great city of Metru Nui . . ."_

_Stara smiled as Baird began to speak the famous words that opened the legend of the Toa Metru, and shifted her weight ever so slightly on the bench she was sitting on. Further down, Kronus and Eos looked like they were holding hands, eyes gleaming as the sunset's light shone through the western window of the great hall. All twenty of the Toa Rohaya were gathered in the hall. Nineteen of them were sitting together on benches while the Toa of Sonics and their main storyteller began to weave his tale._

_The Toa of Lightning closed her eyes as her own mental images of the famous Toa filled her mind. She liked them all, but the Toa of Ice Nuju held a certain draw for her, something that sent thrills through her when she heard his name leave Baird's mouth. She knew what set him apart in her mind from all the other Toa of Ice she knew, even from her teammates Crevan and Calhoun – and it wasn't because he was legendary and they weren't. Rather, it was like he was someone who – in her mind – would listen to her story and know she was telling the truth. He would aid her in regaining her honor . . ._

While the scene in the commons was a cheery one, one of relaxation between friends, beneath the bright surface was a near-tangible tension that all of the Toa in the room could feel subconsciously. While none of them drew attention to the fact, they knew in their hearts that something was going to happen tonight – what, none of the four knew for sure, and they tried to wait it out by acting as normally as possible.

Aeolus was on one side of the large square table that was bolted down to the floor with Stiaye and Amphitrite on either side of him, with Japoro across from him. He felt the tension like air currents – bigger, stronger ones represented stronger tension between those it connected.

And the current that was so small it was practically nonexistent was the one that worried him the most – for his own reasons.

" . . . So anyway," Stiaye continued the story she had been telling them before Aeolus had briefly zoned out. "Me and Stara went to Notus, like Stara had said we should, to see if Taynai's stories had been true or they were just tall tales that had been passed down. Mind you, we hadn't taken the atmosphere that place has into account – it gave us both the creeps – but it was either stand it or go back, and we weren't about to run back like cowards before we had gone farther to explore a place even we hadn't explored yet."

"So you hadn't gone there yet at the time?" asked Amphitrite with an interest that told Aeolus that she hadn't heard this story before. The tension currents rolled off of her in all directions at all the Toa in the room, though less so towards Japoro and him for some reason. He was pretty sure that it was because she was infatuated with the Toa of Ice that she wasn't as tense around him, though why she was less so around him was something he didn't get. True, he had saved her life during that game of Vine Snag three years ago, but he wasn't aware that she knew it was him – for all he knew, she hadn't even known his name when that had happened.

"No," Stiaye said after swallowing the fruit she had popped in her mouth after finishing her previous sentence. "We didn't have the guts to do it until Stara persuaded me to take Steena's dare with her."

"So what happened then?" Aeolus finally said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"We landed, and started going inland up this path on the cliffs. Eventually, we got to this strange rock formation in the center, but we stopped there because we felt really nervous. Then this weird voice started talking to us, telling us to leave, which didn't help our resolve at all."

"Then what?" Japoro asked.

Stiaye shrugged. "The rocks started glowing."

"_What?"_ the other Toa said, startled both by her statement and her simple nonchalance about something that obviously had sent waves of fear through the Toa of Lightning years back.

"Yeah, that's what happened. Lemme see . . . that's about the same time we decided we couldn't take it anymore, and ran back to the boat. When we turned around again, we saw all these glowing Toa . . . things chasing us down the cliffs. By that time we were at the boat, and we barely got offshore before those things were at the place we had moored, but they weren't chasing us after that.

"We got back . . . Steena chewed us out because we didn't the requirements of the dare, but she forgot about it in a few days. That experience still haunts me today, even though we haven't gone back since," the Toa of Lightning finished. Calmly, like she told that story every day, she picked up her glass and sipped some water after the last word left her lips.

"It was probably just a trick of your eyes, Stiaye," Japoro said, like he was trying to convince her (and himself) of that.

"Maybe. Japoro, did you make any progress on those tablets today?" asked the Toa of Lightning in response, steering the conversation away from the story.

"Yeah, those masks Aeolus brought came in handy with fixing that problem," said the Toa of Ice, with a nod towards the Toa of Air.

"Anything new learned from them?"

Before the white and grey Toa could reply, Amphitrite cut him off and addressed Aeolus. The emotion that spiked from her wasn't annoyance, though – it was more like curious embarrassment – which, quite frankly, confused him.

"Aeolus . . ." she began, then broke off and averted her gaze, piquing his interest even more. "What is it, Amph?"

"Did . . . did you ever visit Shi-Nui at some point?" she finally asked, face flushed behind her mask as she said it.

Well, that was an odd question to get all worked up about, in the Toa of Air's opinion. "Um, yes, about three years ago." He was about to add the fact that he had met her then, but she beat him to it.

"I . . . I guess that . . . you met me then?" she asked, her voice slightly higher as she said it, and the stress that he felt jumped her tension levels to a new high. But now he knew what was triggering it: she was remembering the game of Vine Snag that they had played, and how he had saved her life – and the way she had been treating him lately was not what common courtesy call for in return for that. Stiaye and Japoro were watching with interest, which told the Toa of Air they had known something about this beforehand.

"Yes," he said truthfully after a slight pause to get his bearings about the atmosphere change. "I played Vine Snag with you during that time."

Amphitrite let out a long breath, suddenly looking a bit sheepish. "I'm . . . I'm sorry how I've been treating you lately, Aeolus. That's not the right way to show thanks for saving my life."

Aeolus smiled slightly at her. "No need to quick-do that. I heart-knew, even if you didn't."

Amphitrite looked relieved, and he realized that she had been nervous about doing this, because of the fact she hadn't known what he would say in response. Behind her, Japoro and Stiaye leaned back in their chairs and bumped fists. The sight of that put an edge in his mind.

"So anyway," the Toa of Lightning said, settling back into her chair like nothing had happened, "You were saying, Japoro?"

The Toa of Ice pulled out an assortment of tablets, which Aeolus realized held the translations for the original tablets, judging from the modern Matoran letters scratched into their surfaces. He spread them out in front of him. "One of these tablets went deeper into the history of halfling creating. According to it, the first halfling was created about ten thousand years ago from the efforts of a Makuta, name unknown – it was scratched off, and I couldn't decipher its meaning from under it – and a lot of captured Toa and Turaga that the Dark Hunters had kidnapped. According to his lab descriptions, only one out of five of his attempts produced a successful halfling, and anyway there was a good chance the progenitors would break out and destroy their halflings, which was probably how the Makuta experimenting with them found out that the Toa could destroy them."

"What did it say about Turaga halflings?" asked Aeolus, his tone serious, his spike of emotion put aside briefly.

Japoro suddenly got much grimmer, his enthusiasm about sharing new information dampened. "There was a smaller section about them near the bottom. It said that Turaga halflings elementally aren't as powerful as Toa halflings, but they are still very strong. It also said that they are even harder to destroy then Toa halflings."

"How is that possible?" Amphitrite questioned. "The stories said that the only reason that the Rohayan Halflings were destroyed was because their progenitors broke out after Nuju and Stara sabotaged the rack they were being held in."

"The records say that the Turaga in question got weaker as time went by, eventually becoming so weak they can't wake up even if they were released from the holding racks. Only when the Makuta divided the halfling back into two beings – it doesn't specify how that was done (pity, because that could save us a bit of trouble if we knew) – and their shadow returned to them would they revive. We've got our work cut out for us when we face this halfling."

"If that's the case, how are we going to take him out?" mused Stiaye, a look of thoughtfulness in her eyes.

For the next hour or so, the group put their heads together and discussed ways to take out the halfling that threatened the Amari Islands. About four dozen ideas were tossed about, ranging from the plausible to the ridiculous. (The ones that belonged in the latter group got some laughs from the group as a whole.) But the whole time, Aeolus caught more than a few moves from the Toa of Lightning and Ice that suggested something – _other_ between them. A few shared looks, a reassuring touch of the hands when Stiaye seemed to despair of the seemingly hopeless situation before them – all of it made his fists clench beneath the table. There was hardly any tension between them, a current that practically didn't exist. And he decided he would have to do something about this – soon.

**XxX**

Before he had become a Toa, Japoro had been a scholar on another island. He had been a very highly esteemed one as well, even being called an "Icy Scholar" by some of his friends for his crystal-clear view of things. One reason he had been called that had been because he had been able to analyze things even under pressure. It was a trait that had made him a difficult opponent, since it was nearly impossible to fool him with the same move twice in a battle, and had also made him able to predict a person's motives when they spoke about something.

That trait was alive and alert as he and Aeolus stared at each other from a distance of about three bio, their eyes glinting in the moonlight.

Japoro had gone above to set the course for the next day and throw the anchor over the side for the night while Staiye and Amphitrite got ready to catch some sleep. His was a one-person job, so he hadn't expected Aeolus following him up on deck. Something about how the Toa of Air was carrying himself set off alarm bells in his head, letting him know something was up with the Toa from Metru Nui.

The first few things they said were pieces of meaningless small talk, which did not give Japoro any insight on Aeolus' mood, and he finally cut to the chase. "Aeolus, what did you really want to talk about?" he asked.

Aeolus didn't say anything at first, instead using his mask to fly up to his usual post in the crow's nest, settling into his normal stance in the high place. Then he looked down at the Toa of Ice and said a rather confusing statement. "You and Staiye seem to be pretty tight-close," he said, though it sounded more like an accusation then an observation.

"Yeah. What about that, though?" Japoro asked warily. "We're just friends."

"Amph doesn't seem to quick-think so."

Japoro frowned at that statement. It had always been known between him and the Toa of Lightning that Amphitrite suspected that there was more going on between the two of them, though he hadn't known that Aeolus had known about this. As far as he had known, the Toa of Air only knew that Amphitrite liked him and he returned the interest, but not as strongly as she did.

Trying to stall for time, he returned with, "How do you know anything about that? Did Amph put you up to this?" Even as he said that words, he knew how unlikely they were to be true. Amphitrite might be a bit suspicious and possessive, but she made a point of being straight-up to a person when something was bugging her. If there were dirty work to be done that involved her personally, she'd do it herself, not have someone else do it in her stead. Even so, there might be a possibility that she had gotten Aeolus to do this for her, now that they were on better terms.

"No. But she did speak-tell me something about this, first day off from Rohaya." Aeolus met Japoro's eyes again, suspicion in their jasper depths. "Something about you putting your hand on Stiaye."

If Aeolus could see past his mask, he would have seen a pink blush appearing on the Toa of Ice's face. _So much for keeping that a secret._ "What does that have to do with you?" he muttered defensively, turning around and making the anchor drop over the side with his Matatu.

"Quite a bit."

That made him turn around, eyes widened as he sought out Aeolus. The green Toa had dropped from the crow's nest onto the rigging, walking on the top of it like he did this every day. Aeolus didn't say anything else, but something about his body language told him that something was weighing on his mind – something urgent.

Japoro thought back. He had noted when Aeolus' face had drawn when he and the Toa of Lightning had bumped fists after the tension between him and the Toa of Water had eased with her apology to the Toa of Air, and that when he had been reassuring the Toa of the Amari Islands that they would figure something out to save her home, something similar had happened each time. Even with those observations, he still couldn't figure out what this had to do with Amphitrite.

Then he saw, and berated himself for not seeing it at the start. This wasn't about Amph at all. Rather, it was about Stiaye. Aeolus wasn't asking him why he was so close to her for the Toa of Water's motives, but for his own.

That was when it really dawned for him. Aeolus was attracted to her! The Toa of Air had feelings for the Toa of Lightning, most likely spawned on Rohaya when she had stopped the Water Toa from attacking him, and was feeling threatened by Japoro's own friendship with her.

"Idiot," he muttered to himself. Aeolus swung his head towards the Toa of Ice again, eyes flashing in the reflected light of the moon and stars, and he knew that the Toa of Air knew that he had come to the realization.

"What do you want me to do about this?" he asked softly. "It's not like I can avoid her – we're on a ship; I can't exactly leave."

"Just let me have a luck-chance," Aeolus said back, dropping easily off the rigging in front of Japoro. "I can't really get a speak-word in edgewise with you hanging around her all the time."

Japoro thought about that for a minute. He didn't want to have Aeolus' annoyance with him, but he didn't want to risk losing Stiaye's friendship either. He just hoped that she would forgive him once everything was said and done.

Trying not to grimace at what he was going to be doing in the next few days, Japoro nodded and said, "All right. I'll try."

**XxX**

Stiaye was quick to notice things, even if she didn't know the exact reasons behind them. Such was that when she came up on deck the next morning, and she frowned in confusion as she took in the scene before her: Japoro on the bridge with Amphitrite, standing very close to her, keeping up a running conversation when he normally would have backed up at the closeness between them.

_Odd. I don't think I've ever seen him like this around Amph before. Normally he would've talked me into bailing him out by now._

Nonetheless, she approached them, but couldn't help but notice Japoro back away from her slightly, even though they were in no danger of colliding from the angle she had entered from.

And that was the story all day: Japoro would avoid her, not talking to her as much as possible, and sticking to short answers when he absolutely had to respond to her questions – all in all, not acting a bit like his normal self, which confused and, truth be told, hurt her a bit. She didn't have any romantic notions towards him, but she appreciated his friendship, so getting the cold shoulder from the first Ice Toa she'd known who had broken the mold was puzzling, to say the least.

Finally, she took matters into her own hands. "We need to talk," she said, gripping his shoulder tightly when he had been walking away, her tone one that brooked no argument.

"About what?" he said, not turning around to face her. Her eyes widened, because now she knew something was up: his voice was colder, like he had finally embraced his element and let it chill him to the core.

"What's with you?" she demanded, dropping her pretense and letting her annoyance with the Ice Toa show in her voice. "Yesterday you were normal – now you're more like an irritated Frost Beetle than anything else."

"I can't tell you that."

"Oh really?" she shot back sarcastically at him, trying to slip by him so she could look him in the eyes, but he kept moving so he kept avoiding looking directly at her. "Last night you were willing to chat about anything, but now you can't even bring yourself to even _look_ at me?"

Had she been able to see his eyes, she would have seen him looking pained, like he was hurting within at lashing out with these painful words to his friend. But he had to keep her away so Aeolus would have no excuse to think there was something more going on between them, and this was the only way he knew how without telling her the full truth, which would probably make things worse for the Air Toa.

Finally, he knew that he would have to drive a wedge between them – temporarily, at least – so she wouldn't want to talk to him for a while. So, he sealed the deal with a few choice words.

"Look, just leave me alone, alright?!" he finally shouted at her, finally making eye contact with her to make it clear, then took off back for the bridge.

Stiaye stood there for a few minutes, shocked at these foreign words coming from the mouth of one of her closest friends. Though they weren't that foreign – he had said them before when he had been working on some new invention – the tone he delivered them with was. She suddenly realized something had broken between them, and she wasn't sure how to make it better.

A blur of green appeared in her peripheral vision, but she didn't turn around to acknowledge it. "Stiaye? Are you okay-fine?" Aeolus' hand fell gently on her shoulder, but she didn't feel very comforted at the moment.

"No," she muttered, pushing his hand away. Doing so, the Toa of Air caught a glimpse of her eyes, and was startled to see the hurt in them.

"I . . .I just need some time to myself, okay?" she added. Without waiting for an answer, she pushed by Aeolus and vanished below deck. Aeolus would've sworn that he heard a few muffled noises down there, but didn't go to investigate.

He glanced towards the bridge, where Japoro had repositioned himself beside an obviously pleased Amphitrite . The two male Toa made eye contact for a minute, and Aeolus rose an eyebrow. Japoro shook his head in response.

Aeolus turned again towards the door that led below, but knew better than to follow Stiaye.

This was going to take a while.

**XxX**

**Mood Music:** "Decode" by Paramore; "Too Little, Too Late" by Jojo; "Spotlight (Twilight Mix)" by Mutemath (aka Stiaye's theme song)


	13. Kouki

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 12

_The Toa of Water looked down at her Turaga of Lightning friend and former teammate. "There is one thing I do not understand, Reya: you told me once how your people pass the burden of power down through your tribe years ago. Yet I have heard no mention of an Amari Toa from either the news of the sailors I have met or the gossip of your people." Selvan's eyes seemed to bore into Reya's. "Can you tell me who she is, and why I have not heard of her?"_

_The Turaga fiddled with her tool as she sighed, then looked back at Selvan. "Stara was our Toa, but she committed a crime against us: she killed two of the villagers. As such, we sent her into exile."_

"_Why are you lying to me, Reya?"_

_The question caught her off-guard, and it took a few minutes for her to find her voice. "Come again?"_

"_I asked you why you were lying to me," repeated Selvan, her Rode glowing as its power infused her. "Stara did not kill the Matoran you said she did."_

"_How do you know?" Reya asked hesitantly. _

"_I wear the Mask of Truth, Reya – I cannot be deceived," Selvan said, her voice ringing with certainty. "Stara did not kill those Matoran – she is innocent."_

A loud crash sounded down from the commons of the _Jaswinder_ as an Aqua Saber slammed against the metal of an Electric Spear. The two females of the crew were sparring with vigor, though it seemed to the Toa of Water that Stiaye was trying to release some frustration with the fight. She wasn't sure what kind of frustration she was trying alleviate, though: over the past two days, she hadn't been paying much attention to the group leader unless she had addressed her directly. Her pleasure with Japoro actually showing her the affection she _knew_ he felt somewhere for her now had fogged up her mind somewhat lately.

Amphitrite blasted the Toa of Lightning with a powerful jet of water that slammed her backwards into the wall. She quickly shut it down before Stiaye could use one of her favorite tricks on the aggressor: sending an electric charge through the water back at the Toa of Water.

Stiaye got back to her feet in a heartflash, her face set in a hard expression that was almost like a scowl, which surprised the Toa of Water: normally she didn't wear such looks during a sparring match, or anytime at that. It quickly vanished into a grin of pleasure, though, as she rose her hand and used her Matatu to send Amphitrite into the air. She gasped as she felt her feet leave the floor rapidly until she hovered a bio off the ground, but retaliated by activating her own Kanohi and enrobing her in an illusion of the forests back on Shi-Nui.

Startled, she relaxed her control just enough for Amphitrite to send another jet of water at her, and that made her focus break all the way. She dropped all the way back onto the floor, landing in a crouch and as she rose back to her feet, the Toa of Water activated the other aspect of her mask and became a Spiny Stone Ape. Hissing, she leapt the distance between them and knocked the staggered Toa of Lightning back to the ground again, holding her bladed tail to her throat.

Stiaye stared at Amphitrite for a few seconds, then nodded and held up her hands in mock surrender. "Got me that time, Amph," she said, grinning.

The colbalt Toa returned it as she backed away and let Stiaye regain her feet as she revisited her own shape and began to make the spilled water return to her hand. "That was fun. Maybe we should get the others down here and have another two-on-two match," she suggested while she absorbed the liquid back into her body. Her back was to the Lightning Toa at the time, so she didn't see her fists clench at the implied mention of Japoro – and an innocent reminder of his new behavior.

"You know, Stiaye," she continued on, not noticing her friend's reaction to her remark, "I always knew that Japoro felt _something_ for me, the same way I felt for him – he just wasn't showing it. But now he is." She sighed at that notion. "And now that he is –"

"That's enough of that, Amphitrite!"

Startled by the harsh tone of her friend's voice, the Toa of Water spun around to see Stiaye glaring at her. "What's gotten into you?" she asked in concern, all thoughts about the Toa of Ice banished from her mind for the moment. The excess water that floated in her hands fell to the floor with a splash as she broke her concentration.

"What's gotten into me is that Japoro won't even talk to me without sounding like everyone else of his element! And I'm really starting to get fed up with that right now, along with everything else that's going on in my life!" she snapped back to her, and with that, she pushed by the other female roughly and stormed from the room as angrily as her element suggested.

Amphitrite was left blinking in the center of the room as she replayed the conversation that had just transpired in her head. Now that she looked back at the past two days, she realized that there seemed to be some corporeal tension between the Toa of Lightning and Ice, up to the point where they hardly talked to each other, though she hadn't really paid much attention to it other then what she got from it – Stiaye's loss was her own gain, after all.

But now she wondered if that was really such a good thing. After all, they were sailing directly into danger, right at a creature that they now doubted they could defeat from the info that Japoro had found from the old tablets he had deciphered. They needed to be a close-knit team more than ever now, with this black danger looming in their future.

She snorted as she realized where her train of thought was going. _You're thinking like the others of your element,_ she thought to herself, chiding. _You're Amphitrite, not one of those Toa of Water that always calls for unity!_

Regardless, the unity was needed more than ever now. Otherwise, their team was going to be worse off than when Toa Nuva Tahu and Kopaka constantly argued about . . . practically everything, it had seemed during their early months after their awakening; at least that's what the stories had said.

Slowly, she ascended the stairs that led up on deck. Stiaye was nowhere to be seen to her eyes, though it didn't surprise her that, after her little outburst, she would make herself scarce for a bit. Aeolus and Japoro were still in the same position they were had been when the two female Toa had descended to spar: Aeolus in the crow's nest, and Japoro at the bridge where he'd replaced Amphitrite about ten minutes ago. But now that she was paying more attention to her surroundings, she noted that they were avoiding each other's eyes, like they shared some identical shame.

She silently retook her place at the bridge, and again she felt Japoro very close to her. But while in the past two days that had filled her with pleasure, she felt a sense of foreboding, like things were about to break. And she knew it was up to her – the only one that didn't have her wires crossed beyond belief – to fix things before they reached the Amaris.

**XxX**

"We need to talk, Japoro."

Amphitrite winced at the words that left her mouth: she had never said those words before to him, and she had detested the day that she would have to say that to him. _But now, it's necessary to do that._

"About what?" the Toa of Ice asked, turning away from that chart he had been examining to make sure they were on course. He became somewhat surprised when she used her mask to envelop the two of them in an illusion. They could still see outside the false reality she was creating, but a shimmer in the air marked where her illusion ended and reality began again; the scene that was seen outside was no different then what it had been a few minutes before.

"About us," she said – nearly biting off her tongue as she said more of the dreaded words – "but mostly about Stiaye. What's the deal between you and her?"

She knew it was probably the wrong thing to say – she had used those seven words before when she had suspicions of something going on between Japoro and the Lightning Toa, and she heard that sigh from Japoro as he repeated the same words he had always said in response: "There's nothing going on between us, Amph – I've said this enough times that you ought to know that you're the only one I like in _that way._"

"I don't mean that," she retorted, not letting the relief she normally felt when he said that suffuse her. "I was referring to the fact you and Stiaye aren't on as great terms you used to."

"So? You ought to not mind that," he shot back. And he was right; she had to admit it, though she hated doing so. Normally, she would've taken advantage of the fact there was a rift between the two of them to cement the bond between her and the Ice Toa. But the time and circumstances were different here, and they were sailing directly into danger. She couldn't let misunderstandings get in their way.

"Maybe I would've – back on Shi-Nui," she stated, slowly and clearly so her words went through to him. "But this isn't my home. We're going to fight something that we've got very little chance of defeating, according to those tablets you deciphered the other night, and – I can't believe I'm saying this – we need our unity."

She looked forward at the route they were taking, not looking at the Toa of Ice while she let her words sink in. Finally, he spoke again. "You've changed." It was not a question.

"Yes."

A pause, then a resigned sigh. "Alright, here's the deal. The night we were discussing the information I found, Aeolus confronted me about my friendship with Stiaye." That was all Amphitrite needed to hear to know what was going on.

"He's attracted to Stiaye?" she asked, turning back to him, not losing focus on her mask power as she processed the new info she was being given.

"That's the impression he gave me."

"And let me guess. He's threatened by your friendship with Stiaye, and he's made you keep your distance," Amphitrite inferred.

Japoro nodded somewhat sheepishly. "Yeah, kinda."

"Well," she said softly, so quietly that Japoro could only barely hear her speak. "That explains why she was acting like a wounded Muaka after we sparred this morning and I mentioned you."

"What are you going to do?" he asked warily, hearing the speculative tone she adopted when she was cooking up some kind of plan.

"Just put our team back together."

**XxX**

That night, Amphitrite cornered Stiaye in the barracks they shared. Stiaye hadn't talked to her all day, but the Toa of Water hadn't been concerned about it: whenever Stiaye got annoyed about something, she tended to stay silent for a while until she got over it.

"Stiaye?" The Toa of Lightning ignored her. Amph, undeterred, went on without pause. "Stiaye, I talked to Japoro today."

"So?" she responded harshly.

"I think I know why he's acting like this." Amphitrite had been rehearsing this conversation in her mind all day, and in the end had decided that she better not give all the gory details to her. _She's got enough on her mind as it is,_ she thought of Stiaye sympathetically.

"Why?"

Amphitrite started to get annoyed. "Look, are you going to talk to me in one-word sentences this whole time or what? At least let me in on that, so I know not to expect anything else from you now," she said sharply to her friend.

Stiaye sighed and turned around so she was facing the Toa of Water. "I'm sorry, Amph. It wasn't right for me to take my frustration out on you, when you have nothing to do with it."

The Toa of Water inclined her head, signaling that all was forgiven, and then the other added, "Now, what were you going to say, before you got annoyed by me not giving longer answers?" There was no condescending nor curt tone to her voice, though, meaning that she was entirely curious about what she had to say.

"According to him . . ." She hesitated, then kept going, hiding the whole truth from Stiaye. "He says that Aeolus wants to know you better, but he couldn't talk to you since you were always with Japoro. He asked him to keep his distance so he could actually get a word in edgewise, but I guess he's not doing such a great job of it," she threw in for good measure, adding a tone of exasperated affection for the Toa of Ice into her voice.

Stiaye hesitated, and for an instant Amphitrite wondered if she had seen through her lie. Then she sighed and shook her head, smiling tiredly. "So that explains why Japoro's been acting like a grumpy Frost Beetle around me lately," she said, sounding relieved that this turn of events now had an explanation.

The cobalt Toa let out a low sigh; her lie hadn't been blown. "That's right."

"Well, if Aeolus wants to be my friend, I guess I should get on that soon," the Toa of Lightning said, grinning to her friend and bumping fists with her. "Thanks, Amph."

"No prob, Stiaye." Just as Amphitrite began to turn away, Stiaye added, "Oh, and Amph? Tell Japoro that if he wanted to keep me away, there are nicer ways."

"I'll do that."

**XxX**

Ariadne was quiet as she walked through Xi-Koro's streets, still turning the story she, Steena, and Turaga Stara had discovered three days prior through her head. Even though they had gained a fairly solid theory about why the Amari Islands was so often plagued by halfling activity, Stara still continued to unleash her spirit so she could spy of Deimos. The Xi-Matoran was the second-in-command of the village overall when Stiaye wasn't around to assume that role, so the safety of her people often rested on her narrow shoulders.

One of her main concerns was of Stara's choice to continue spying on Deimos, despite their theory. Ariadne was worried that she was propelled by her desire to check on Nuju instead of actual spying work. Another concern was that Stara might not be safe as a spirit. Halflings were said to have great power – maybe they could reach through the weave of the spirit realm and harm the Turaga.

All of her woes drove the Xi-Matoran to walk up to a friend's front door. She needed someone to talk to, someone to confide in, and Kouki was just that person.

Kouki was a newcomer to Xi-Koro, arriving within the last fifty years and liking the climate enough to move in permanently. Despite the fact he wasn't a Xi-Matoran, it wasn't unknown for other Matoran to live in the village, so he was welcomed into the community. Some of the more wilder-minded of the tribe believed that his arrival in the Amaris had some connection to Stara's homecoming, since he had come within months of Stara's return from exile.

Ariadne rapped on the wood door of Kouki's hut, which lay on the northernmost arm of the village's formation. It had once been the home of the treacherous Xi-Matoran Sekmet, but even knowing its history had not dissuaded him from living in the place.

As usual, the door opened three seconds after the knock, revealing Kouki's Komau-style mask as his blue eyes peered out to meet her own orbs. Smiling, the Ko-Matoran beckoned her inside: he didn't get very chatty until he and his host/guest were in the same area together, in this case his home.

True to his nature, once the Xi-Matoran had crossed the threshold and the front door had closed, Kouki spoke up. "How is the Turaga doing, Ariadne? Is she spying on the halfling right now?"

Ariadne was about to nod "yes", but the Ko-Matoran had bustled off to brew tea – in Xi-Koro, the signal to make yourself at home – so she had to say so aloud. "Chaka and Scylla are watching over her right now," she said, sitting down on the Rahi-leather couch in his living room. "They forced me to take some time off; do something for myself instead of hovering." The scent of herbal tea wafted into the room through the saplings he cared for in his home, serving as a nursery for the young trees until they were planted on the three islands that provided Xi-Koro with fruit and wood.

The refreshing smell heralded Kouki, carrying two mugs of the brew into the room, handing one to her as he sat down in a chair opposite of Ariadne. A surprised frown crossed the Xi-Matoran's expression as she watched him sit down, and she added, "You seem taller than you were the last time I talked with you."

The Ko-Matoran examined the Matoran of Lightning, realizing that he was indeed a head taller than her. "Growth spurt, I guess," he said with a shrug. As Matoran went, he younger than her and didn't take life as seriously as his kinsmen, preferring the ways of his adopted village than of his tribe.

Now that she was paying attention, Ariadne also noticed that he seemed to have more Xi-colors mingling with his natural white, but since she knew she would get the same response to it, she didn't bring it up, instead sipping her tea to distract herself: piping hot and without sugar, as most of the village preferred, allowing the sweetness of spearmint to flavor the brew instead.

"You are worried," Kouki stated suddenly, setting down his empty cup (how males managed to drink their drinks so fast was a mystery to Ariadne) and catching her amber eyes in the gaze of his blue ones, holding fast. Unable to deny the truth – and she had planned to speak about this anyway – she nodded.

"Why do you fear?" Kouki spoke in a slightly formal voice when conversation turned serious, and was less inclined to use the slang Ariadne did. Why was a mystery to most of the villagers, but no one felt inclined to try and change his habits.

Because Stara had bidden Steena and Ariadne to hold their tongues on what they had discovered, the Turaga's right hand did not speak the whole truth, instead voicing only her fear. "I'm worried about Stara's errands to spy on our enemy," she said, looking down into her tea's scalding depths, a murky, clear-amber color greeting her eyes. There was a second drink common to the Matoran here: a thick, dark, bitter-sweet drink made from the seed-pulp of a native plant here. It was one of their main exports to the wider world, but since this one of the few places you could get it, the outer world tended to save it only for special occasions. The Xi-Matoran tended to follow this policy, even though most of them had those plants growing near their houses and could make the brew practically any time they wanted.

"Why?"

_Leave it to a Ko-Matoran to get straight to the point,_ Ariadne thought, slightly amused. "Her motives," she stated simply. "She says she's spying on him, but is she really doing that? Maybe she's just watching Nuju, instead of doing what she says she's doing."

She never would have said this directly to Stara, since her biased trial years before had scarred the memories of many of the Matoran that had participated about motives, Ariadne included. While all of the present evidence had pointed at the erstwhile Lightning Toa at the time, her trial had hardly been fair to her, since no one had thought of pulling out a Noble Rode and checking Stara's story at the time – and even when they had, they didn't really care, since most had been fully convinced of Stara's guilt.

"You have to put yourself into Stara's boots," Kouki said. "She has to worry about the safety of us all; she doesn't want to tell Stiaye that one of her friends was killed during her journey home to fight Deimos. She fears for Nuju, yes, but she needs to put the village above her own feelings – even though I'm sure she still wants to protect him."

Ariadne was silent, so the Ko-Matoran reached over the table to clasp her hand. "Stara's been up again halflings before, and she's still alive. Trust her abilities."

**XxX**


	14. Homecoming

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 13

_Reya looked at the Matoran beside her right after the guilty Sekmet had vanished with the beings that had grasped her arm and laid claim to her punishment, despite the protests of the others of their village. "Stiaye. You know Stara like no one else here does. Can you find her?" Beside the Turaga of Lightning, Selvan looked at the female Matoran, silently imploring her to answer._

"_Yes," Stiaye said after a moment's pause. "It may take some time to pick up her trail, but I can find her, given the time."_

"_Do so. Tell her . . . tell her we were wrong, and that the real culprit was found out. Tell her we want her to come home, where she belongs."_

"_I will." Stiaye said firmly._

"_Then hurry and leave, and may luck be with you in the hunt."_

The _Jaswinder_ sailed through an early morning mist, the sunlight beginning to burn it away slowly. A week had passed since Amphitrite had singlehandedly smoothed out the group tension, and their sailing had made record times – not that any of them were counting the knots they were moving at for each day.

Up in the crow's nest, both Aeolus and Staiye were perched up in the highest part of the ship, both keeping their eyes out for land – and trading stories about their lives before this adventure as well.

"So anyway," Stiaye said, turning her head so she could look the Toa of Air directly, "Eurus said that after he showed up – and before that, apparently – Amph hated being called by the nickname Enki had given her. Of course," she added with a snort, "she changed her mind about it when Japoro showed up and started calling her that too. According to him, she started insisting that they called her that almost all the time after he arrived."

"Pretty thought-suggestible, I'd speak-say," Aeolus responded.

"Got that right. I'd tell you what she supposedly said to Japoro when he first turned up on Shi-Nui, but I don't want the pain. When she found out what Eurus told me, he had a headache that stuck around for the better part of a week after she was done with them." Stiaye winced theatrically as she said the words, and so did he. Both of them smiled after, than Aeolus pointed over her shoulder. "What's that?"

Stiaye turned around to see a dark shape looming ahead of them from the mist. She leaned over the rail, ignoring the danger that came with the action, and squinted, but she still couldn't make it out. "I can't see it properly. Aeolus, think you can clear this up for me?"

A strong gust of wind was her answer as the mist began to thin, than vanished completely.

Stiaye quietly gasped as the scene flew into her eyes like a Gukko off a branch. Before her was a huge island, dotted with mountains and the rocky faces of cliffs. To the west was a cluster of three much smaller islands, covered in trees and bushes. A bleaker island could be seen much further south, but the sight was bad and she couldn't see it clearly.

Regardless, she knew what this place was, and for a minute she could only stare, because she had not been here in years.

"What is this place?" Aeolus asked, sounding impatient.

Stiaye finally found her voice again. "My home," she said softly.

She turned, and saw him looking at the islands again, this time with much more interest than the first time. "The Amaris, yes," she added softly, still in that sentimental tone, then sharpened it as she suddenly bent down, grabbed the top of the rope ladder that led up to the nest, then rapidly climbed down it to the bottom, jumping the last few steps. "Come on! We're almost there. Amph, I'll steer; I know where to moor this thing. The rest of you get ready to land and be wary. Last thing I want is to be waylaid by that halfling when we're so close."

**XxX**

The _Jaswinder_ managed to moor a bit off-shore (it was too shallow to go any closer). But then Aeolus pointed out as they planned to disembark, "We don't have any float-boats. And we can't exactly pull off another one of those Rohaya telekinetic high-flights."

"Unneeded," Japoro answered, bending down from the deck and lowering his sword into the water. A chill filled the air around it as he activated his powers, and the water began to freeze over, building layers of ice over the thick berg that was forming over the water's surface. Being careful to not hurt the Rahi that were living below – these were tropical waters, after all – he made sure that the cold and ice didn't go too far below the surface. After the bridge had been completed, he stepped onto it and helped the others onto it, than they began to make their way to shore.

They were about halfway to the island when Aeolus felt the air change, like something was moving against the wind towards them. He reached out with his powers and touched the air, trying to locate the source of the disturbance, and felt that something – very close to their location.

He turned in the direction of the change, and saw a black speck on the blue horizon that was rapidly growing bigger as it flew towards them. He wasn't sure what it was – for all he knew, it was some kind of tropical Rahi native to these islands – so he flew up to take a better look, ignoring Staiye's surprised call up to him.

Up there, he got a better look at it. The creature had giant bat wings, and was a slimy shade of black he normally associated with sludge instead of beings. The black was shot with a pale, pale white, almost like a ghost's shade of the color, in spaced-out stripes. Then he caught a glimpse of the face and build, and he then knew what he was looking at.

Quickly, Aeolus dove back down to join the others, praying to Mata Nui that the halfling hadn't noticed them. "Get down!" he hissed, pulling out one of his swords as he gripped Stiaye's shoulder and forced her to crouch down as he did the same.

"What is it, Aeolus?" asked Amphitrite, quickly following his example, being careful not to raise her voice too loud – she knew by this time that he wasn't cut from the same mold as Eurus.

"Halfling."

That set off a chain reaction. Everyone pulled their tools out while Amphitrite cast an illusion around them, hiding them from sight. The group didn't dare breathe too loudly, out of fear that the halfling would hear them. Through the illusion, they watched the sky as the dark mirror of Nuju flew over their heads, then circled above them and flew back over them more than once. The same thought raced through their heads at the same time: _Does he know we're here?_

Of course, Stiaye realized, he knew that something was up. The _Jaswinder_ wasn't a normal ship that moored up at the harbor here. And then there was the questionable iceberg that Amph couldn't hide with her powers. That was sure to raise an eyebrow on anyone.

Before she could come up with a way to make him go away, she heard something from the berg: a cracking sound from ahead. She turned herself so she could see the disturbance – and accidentally put part of her shoulder outside of the illusion.

A screech came from above, telling her she had been seen. A blast of heat vision followed it up, aiming straight at her.

Everyone acted at once. Amphitrite disengaged her illusion and pushed both herself and the Toa of Lightning into the water, while Japoro shattered the bridge into fragments with a mental nudge of his powers and then threw them upward at the halfling in a razor-sharp storm of icicles. Aeolus directed it with a powerful blast of air that narrowed the scope and made it less likely that the halfling could avoid it. Unfortunately, they had forgotten that there was a Rahkshi power that did just that, and the halfling used that power.

Stiaye, meanwhile, was recovering from the shock of getting knocked underwater by Amphitrite. While the people of her tribe were not as big fans of swimming as Ga-Matoran were, they all knew how to swim and boat from their enviroment's features. She quickly surfaced above the water with the Water Toa beside her, treading water as they kept their heads above water.

The Toa of Lightning then got a good look at the sky as they looked at the halfling, and realized that there was a lightning storm beginning to roll in from the north. Even though it was still a few days away from hitting the islands, it was still close enough for her to make use of it.

_Just a few charges,_ she thought to herself as she began to make the particles that created lightning naturally to begin to rub up against each other and get an electrical spark that may become a full-fledged bolt of her element. _Then we'll see if we can get rid of this one._

Gradually, she felt the electricity beginning to build in the clouds, and flashes of the baby lightning showed through the far-away clouds. The halfling, who was busy dodging geysers conjured up by Amphitrite – each high-pressure, each able to cut through metal with ease – wasn't really paying attention to the thunderclouds looming from behind. Finally, the lightning was ready to strike.

"Everyone down!" she called, mimicking Aeolus except for the fact she was yelling it.

Japoro had known the Toa of Lightning long enough to know when her warnings were truly serious, and Aeolus had learned the same thing quickly. Both dove in to join the two females in the water, while Amphitrite made one more jet of water to make the halfling avoid going after them, though he did retaliate with another blast of heat vision that evaporated it. However, the resulting steam hindered his pursuit of the Toa.

The time was now. Stiaye used her power to gather the lightning she had created in the clouds into one bolt and sent it down, aiming for the black dark mirror. A rumble of far-off thunder sounded as the bright bolt of electricity erupted and traveled unnaturally far and fast to strike its target.

Stiaye and her group of Toa got a good, if brief, look at the anatomy of the halfling as it hit, illuminating his body with white light so bright that they all had to cover their eyes to protect their sight. By the time they thought it was safe to look again, he had shaken off the hit and was making a rapid retreat to the south where, according to the letter Stara had sent the Toa of Lightning, he had his base.

"Think he'll be back?" asked Aeolus as he and Japoro surfaced beside them.

"Probably. My tribe isn't powerful enough on its own to cause a threat, with the fact that Nuju is his progenitor and Stara refuses to kill him. It's probably why they chose Nuju as the progenitor – if Stara knew, she wouldn't have the heart to kill him. But he'll be wary now that we're here. He might think that we can defeat him."

"Wonder if he knows about the fact Turaga become catatonic when they have their shadow removed for too long?" murmured Amphitrite. There was a pause as they considered that implication. Then Aeolus broke their train of morbidity.

"We better quick-hurry to the shore and to Xi-Koro. Do you want me to high-fly you to shore?" he asked to the group at large.

The Toa of Water and Lightning shook their heads. "We're already wet. We'll swim," replied Amphitrite as she vanished underwater again, Stiaye beside her.

Japoro also declined in favor of an ice slide, so Aeolus flew himself to the shore.

By the time the two female Toa had reached shore, a Xi-Matoran had all but sprinted down the trail leading to the beach. "Toa Stiaye!" she gasped, nearly out of breath from running down the cliff. "Thank the Great Beings that you've come! We saw the lightning bolt; we knew it must have been you."

"Try to catch your breath, Chaka," the Toa of Lightning said to her friend, bending to place her hand on the Matoran's shoulder. "Is the village still safe?"

"Yes. Deimos' has been flying over the village a lot, but he's left it alone." At the blank look on the faces of the Toa, the Mahiki-masked Matoran added, "Stara thinks that's the name of the halfling. She's been spying on him with an Iden she has."

"Where is Stara?" asked the Toa of Water.

"She told me to bring you to her hut when you got here. By the way, Stiaye," Chaka added as they began to ascend the steps, "Who are your friends?"

"Amphitrite, Japoro and Aeolus," replied the Lightning Toa, nodding to each in turn as she overtook her Matoran friend.

The run up the stairs, while it normally was a three-minute climb up or down, seemed much faster to Stiaye as she raced up to see the evidence of her tribe's survival for herself. Once at the top, she didn't stop to rest, but continued across the hills of the island with strides that seemed like she was flying while still touching the ground. She quickly left the others behind as she sprinted across her home island, not stopping until she was standing on the hilltop that overlooked the Village of Lightning.

It was untouched. The last weeks had not resulted in harm for her friends. Relief washed through her as she turned, waiting for the others to catch up.

She abruptly changed her opinion when they all reunited and went through the gates of the village. The Matoran had a haunted look in their eyes, eyes that constantly looked up at the southern sky, like they were envisioning the bat-winged halfling flying over them again. There weren't nearly as many Matoran of Lightning out as there should've been, but then she saw some were in their huts, cautiously leaving their sanctuaries like they didn't think it was really safe. All of them looked like they were ready to run away at the slightest sign of danger, which filled Stiaye with grief. _They shouldn't feel like this!_

The pathos feeling increased as she saw their reactions to Chaka's yells of "Make way!" They would look up immediately look up, fear in their eyes, only for it to be instantly dispelled when they saw who was following her. They crowded around the group of four Toa, saying things like "Mata Nui bless the day when you came!" "Everything's going to be alright now. Stiaye's come back!" and other things like that. None of them, while they feigned a strong façade to keep the spirits of the Matoran up, really enjoyed this treatment.

They quickly made their way through the crowds, relief filling them when they had freed themselves from the mass. Taking a few side alleys, they made their way through the village, straight into the heart of the village where Stara made her home. Chaka quickly rapped on the door. "Who is it?" came the response, and Stiaye felt a wave of nostalgia sweep through her as she recognized the voice of her oldest friend.

"Who you've been hoping to come," she replied. A pause that only lasted a second followed, with the words "Come in," right on the heels of it.

The Toa of Lightning pushed the door open and she ducked inside the hut; the door frame was a lot smaller then she remembered. Japoro, Amphitrite, and Aeolus followed her, with Chaka closing the door behind her as she left them. Stara was walking quickly over to them, her eyes glowing with hope as she took them in. "At last you've come," she said, her voice filled with relief.

Stiaye bent so she could touch her fist to Stara's. "We came as fast as we could. This is Amphitrite, Aeolus, and Japoro," she added, naming each Toa in turn. They nodded greetings to the Turaga of Lightning, eyes widened slightly as they took in the sight of the legendary female that had taken on the Rohayan Halflings fifty years before. "Has anything happened since you sent me that letter?" Stiaye asked, her eyes serious as she waited for her friend's reaction.

"Not much. Mostly I've been spying on that halfling, trying to learn something from him – or how to defeat him." Stara sighed discontentedly. "Unfortunately, there's very little info to be gained from that."

"We discovered something from a tablet we found on Rohaya," Stiaye said reluctantly, not wanting to make the mood more somber then it already was. She gave a slight nod to Japoro – it was his discovery; he ought to be the one to share it, no matter how morbid it was – and in a flat, expressionless voice he recounted the information he had gleaned from the records: how halfling-spawning Turaga grew weaker as time passed on, until they were in a coma, unable to awaken until their shadow side returned to them. The dark mood seemed to grow stronger as the words left his mouth.

After the room was silent again, Stara was wordless, her face turned away from the four Toa. She slowly paced to her desk, looking to them like her spirit had left her. The Turaga's hand brushed the tablets and scrolls that were arranged neatly on its face, eyes downcast.

"So that's why things are going to be more difficult for all of us to defeat this 'Deimos' person," Amphitrite said, eager to break the silence even though it meant that she was basically signing Nuju's death sentence with her words.

Stara didn't answer right away, but after a few seconds she murmured, "Maybe it won't, Amphitrite, if what I learned from that spirit was true."

"What spirit?" asked Stiaye urgently to her old friend, wondering where this was leading.

"The same day I discovered that a halfling was in the Amaris, a spirit possessed my body. Charybdis and Ariadne drove him or her out, but he came back and did it again about two weeks ago. Both times, the spirit gave hints that it knew something about how to stop Deimos.

"The second time, Ariadne managed to get it to tell her that it could be found in the records of our legends. We searched for it with Steena, and we found it. And with it, we might have figured out why halflings and Makuta destined to become them seem to be drawn to our home."

"What do you deep-mean?" asked Aeolus, his eyes unblinking as he fixed them on the Turaga of Lightning, wondering what she was talking about.

In reply, Stara unrolled a particularly old and large scroll, being careful not to rip the yellowed material. The Toa walked over to examine it. Spindly handwriting covered it; writing that Stiaye recognized as the late Luxa's. Dominating the top portion of the record was an intricate drawing of what seemed to be a spear. The shaft was marked with miniscule symbols that she could not make out, and the head seemed to have an inexplicable look of might, despite the fact it was only a sketch. But one thing the Lightning Toa realized was that she had never seen this before, and told her so.

"Neither did I," replied Stara. "Nor Steena, or anyone else in this village has seen this story up until now. We suspect that Sekmet hid this away from us on Kiria's orders when she was here, so many years ago, so we would never find out what lay here."

"But what is that?" asked Japoro, pointing to the drawing. "And how can it help us with that halfling?"

"This is might be our only hope against Deimos," Stara said softly, her hand tracing the drawing almost with reverence. "This is the Legend of Ajax."

**XxX**

*insert ominous organ music and lightning strikes here*


	15. Legends

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 14

_Kronus' eyelids felt like they were going to shutter closed on his sight, but he was afraid of falling asleep, and falling victim to the nightmares that had been plaguing him for the past three nights. Judging from the half-mast eyelids of his teammates, they felt the same. All of them had dark circles beneath their eyes, looking like they were going to pass out on the floor in front of them. _

_Fortunately, there was work to do that kept them from dozing off._

_Later that day, he approached Stara with a proposition. Like everyone else, her eyes had black bags beneath them, but her eyes had a haunted light in them; she looked like she had when Kronus had found her eight hundred years ago, back when she had no place to go. _

"_Stara," he said. She nodded sleepily in greeting. "Do you want to check the surrounding islands? We're due for a check."_

_The Lightning Toa's tired eyes sparked as some stray lightning raced over her body; a stimulus to stay awake. "Anything to get moving and keep myself from falling asleep on the job," she said, a yawn beginning to curl her words before she stifled it._

"_Let's move, then. If I don't get a move on, I'll wind up on the floor."_

Stiaye looked blank, along with all the other Toa. She had never heard of Ajax, or this legend that seemed to be about him.

"I know you haven't heard of this one before – I hadn't either, until about two weeks ago," Stara said, eyes glinting as she saw their confused expressions.

"Well, just tell us!" Amphitrite said, finally exasperated enough to go and say it. She quickly tacked on, "Please," when she got "the look" from her teammates.

"As you wish," Stara said, an amused smile on her face as she began to tell the tale.

**XxX**

It is said that the Toa of Fire known as Ajax (Stara read) came from a dimension different from our own. There, the Brotherhood of Makuta, under the leadership of Makuta Icarax, ruled with an iron fist, with the halflings as their enforcers. Shadow reigned, and all beings – save the servants of the Brotherhood – lived in fear of drawing too much unwanted – and dangerous – attention. When any being arose that might rally a force to bring the Brotherhood down, the halflings were sent to exterminate them and their followers. Wrapped in the confidence that they were immortal to all except those who had spawned their shadow, they never failed into their tasks.

Ajax was a Toa who endured the harsh regime, but dreamed of a world when these oppressors were gone forever. Hoping he could create something that could further his chances to live and see that day come, he secretly forged a spear made of solid protosteel. Some storytellers say that it could slice through the fabric of reality, though whether this was true or not is open to speculation. What is known is that during its creation, Ajax infused the better part of his elemental power into the spear for reasons unknown at the time; maybe he had intended to use the spear as a Toa Stone of some sort in the future. But the power that he had given it was destined for another use, one that was soon shown.

A friend of his, a Toa of Water called Cascata, became one of those dangers to the Brotherhood, and they decided it was time to remove her. They sent a halfling after her, with orders to capture instead of kill; they hoped they could create a powerful halfing that shared her spirit from her, as she was very influential at the time. Badly hurt, she fled to Ajax's home, and her attacker, a female called Eris, followed her. Ajax stood between her and her quarry, and they fought for Cascata's fate. The Toa of Fire was a powerful fighter, but Eris' near-immortality gave her the upper hand. Stripped of almost all his weapons, Ajax was close to defeat when he seized his new spear, which had lain untouched since its creation.

The instant he touched it, a power bond formed between weapon and wielder, and all his tiredness vanished as fire erupted over the spear, though he was not harmed by the power. Rather, he felt like more power was being fed through him, and the spear was the outlet for this new energy.

Eris didn't seem to share that effect, as she screamed and clawed at her eyes like the fire burned and blinded her, even though she wasn't touching the weapon. Struck by an idea, Ajax threw his spear directly at Eris, and its flame grew more bright and powerful as it soared through the air and buried itself in her heartlight.

She combusted, and her body barely had any substance left by the time the fire died down. And the strangest thing was that Ajax had never spawned any halfling, let alone Eris.

The answer became plain to him and Cascata very quickly, because scant hours after the death of Eris, they heard that her progenitor had escaped from captivity and was in hiding. The Brotherhood was baffled by how Eris had died, because they had all felt her death like an earthquake swell, and their attempts to hide the truth were hastily made, but not well enough to fool the beings of the universe.

Ajax realized that his spear had been able to destroy a halfling where one should not have been able to. The power he had infused in it had given him the power to kill the dark mirrors, where no one else had been able. Finally, the universe had hope.

Still, he wanted to test it. He gathered a group of his friends, including Cascata and the freed progenitor of Eris, a Lightning Toa called Audra, and he challenged another halfling with his spear in hand. Knowing what he did, the halfling was easily destroyed, and his progenitor managed to escape as well. Knowing now that this spear's power was what it seemed, the group of Toa pledged their support to Ajax and his spear. Together, they marked the shaft with their elemental symbols and poured part of their power into the weapon as well, giving him the ultimate sign of their conviction to follow him.

Together, they set out to topple the halflings and strike back at the Brotherhood. With every halfling death, many more beings rallied to their side while they sowed paranoia amongst the Brotherhood. Everything they tried to do to protect the dark mirrors – powerful weapons, thicker armor, Rahkshi and Exo-Toa guards – did no good against the power of Ajax's weapon, because he always brought friends to help remove distractions. As time went on from that second kill, a mark appeared on his mask, an imprint of blazing fire that stretched across from the upper right to the lower left part of his mask, covering his right eye. The mark became more noticeable as time went on and he destroyed more halflings; perhaps it marked his death count. But whatever it was, it made him recognizable amongst his group, and the time soon came, after many, many halflings had fallen beneath his Spear, that they made their final stand before the Brotherhood fortress.

They marched on the stronghold, a force hundreds strong and created from the union of nearly every species in the universe. Amongst the Brotherhood troops were last dozen or so halflings, but they no longer struck fear into the attackers, because they knew their ultimate bane was in the hands of their leader.

Icarax, looking down from the fortress with the remaining Makuta, saw Ajax destroy a halfling with his weapon, and now realized that he was the one responsible for the deaths of their enforcers. In one, last, desperate maneuver to even the odds of the battle, he sent the Makuta Thanatos out to destroy the Toa of Fire and his Spear. Thanatos attacked Ajax and his guard, and it quickly became obvious that while the Spear was very effective against halflings, it was just an ordinary weapon against a Makuta.

Ajax, Cascata, and Audra fought to stop the Makuta as he attacked the wielder of the Spear, attempting to take it as his own or kill the protectors. The fight was fierce, but the fight reached its climax as Thanatos severely injured the three with a powerful blast of shadow energy. But before he could deal the fatal blow on them and seize the Spear, one of the fighters against the Brotherhood, knowing that Ajax had destroyed the last halflings that remained on the battlefield and he was close to death, used his Kanohi Olmak to send the three to another universe, away from Thanatos' reach.

The trio appeared on a black island of bare rock, surrounded by five other islands. Seeking a place to hide and heal, they entered a giant cavern that lay beneath the surface of the island. But despite their efforts, they could not halt the fact that they were dying. They would've accepted this if it weren't for the fact that Ajax's mask, which allowed him and others he touched to see events millennia before they happened, showed him and his companions that someday, halflings would be created here as well, and they would seek to destroy the Spear as well. Death they could accept, but they knew they could not leave Ajax's Spear unprotected.

So, with their dying breaths, they laid a curse on the island and the Spear. Using a brand of necromancy, they made it that Toa or Turaga that had been killed directly by a Makuta or halfling would be resurrected and brought to their new island in their most powerful forms, to serve as protectors for the Spear and secure hope for those who fought the halflings.

With the curse created, they died . . . but they returned almost instantly, brought back by their own power; something they had intended to happen. When they returned, many of their comrades from their own home returned as well, for they had died during the last stand against their enemies. They knew that they had won, though, and they also knew their duty to aid the wielder of the Spear still held firm. The Spear was no longer needed where they had come from, so they focused on securing the future of this universe they now lived in.

Thus, they began their new lives beneath the surface of the black island. Cascata was named as the public leader of the spirits, while Ajax plunged deeper beneath the island, keeping the Spear forever under his eye. As the years passed by, Matoran colonized the islands that surrounded their home, and myths crept up about the black island, saying that it was haunted by lost souls that emerged on the nights when the moons were blackened. A few made attempts to find the truth, but they were always driven off by the cloud of fear that the spirits would envelope their island in.

They knew one day someone would come for the Spear, hoping it could save them from a halfling. And until that day comes, they will wait beneath the rock of their black home, awaiting the next wielder to come and use the power of the weapon they are all destined to guard until the end of time.

**XxX**

There was a long, heavy silence after Stara finished speaking. Stiaye felt a little uneasy, like a bunch of undead Toa were looking at her right then and there, and apprehensively looked over her shoulder, half expecting spirits to be peering at them through the walls of the hut. There weren't, of course, but the eerie feeling didn't leave. Aeolus finally broke the silence.

"So you're quick-saying that if we retrieve-find this spear, we could quick-save Nuju, and everything goes back to normal?" There was a skeptical tone to his voice, but beneath it was an undertow of hope that infused him.

"It does seem a bit too easy," put in Amphitrite, her voice just as skeptical. "Just get the weapon and bam! Halfling problem is as good as done?" The Water Toa shook her head. "Wish I'd heard about this sooner."

"So do I," added Stara. "Maybe this Spear of Ajax business is responsible for all of the halfling activity that surrounds the Toa of our region."

"What do you mean, Stara?" asked Japoro.

"Well, think back – I was exiled by Sekmet, who was aided by Kiria, a Makuta that later became a halfling. Now Deimos is here, in the same islands. Maybe they have heard this legend, and wish to gain control the Spear, if it exists."

"True, but how do we know that it's here – or how they know?" asked Stiaye, breaking out of her reverie.

"This," her Turaga replied, pointing to an illustration that had been drawn to cut up the part when Ajax's companions had cast their spell over their new island. A quick glance confirmed that, while rough, this was a depiction of the Amari Islands, with one of the islands blackened – probably to emphasize the point this was where the spirits settled.

"Well, then," Amphitrite said, her voice low. "We ought to get to that island and see if there is any hope to be found there. What island is that, anyway?"

"You won't like it," Stara said grimly. "Especially you, Stiaye. It's on Notus."

**XxX**

**Mood Music:** "Battle for Varden" by Patrick Doyle (from the _Eragon_ soundtrack, I might add; movie sucked but the soundtrack was okay)


	16. Notus

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 15

_The fortress of Rohaya stood alone, wrapped in a night fog. The windows were dark; many of the eighteen Toa that lived behind them were asleep. All was still._

_Then a single scream pierced the night open, as well as shattering the glass. It was muffled rapidly, but the lights were rapidly being reignited; the others had been roused. Now the night wasn't silent – far from it. Now the night was filled with hissing, yells, screams, the clash of metal on metal, and the bursts of color that showed the elemental energy that was being unleashed._

_Then everything went silent, though the lights still shone from the window holes. Rapidly, those lights were extinguished._

_The night was silent again, but the silence now felt more oppressive, like a veil of shadow had fallen and was pressing down on the island._

The _Jaswinder_ sailed through the black water, moving through the foggy night towards the island of Notus. Aeolus, in the crow's nest as usual, looked up and saw that while the sky was spotted with stars in the places he could see through the low-lying clouds, the moon's reassuring glow was nowhere to be seen; a new moon night.

Amphitrite had surrendered her position at the bridge to Japoro, and was standing at the bow with Stiaye and Turaga Stara, trying to lessen the thick cloud banks.

"Any luck?" asked Stiaye, though she already knew the answer from the evidence before her; she felt reassured by giving voice to her question.

"None," the Toa of water replied as she broke off her efforts with a frustrated huff. "Some stronger force is keeping it there; I can't get rid of it."

Stiaye willed a ball of her elemental energy to slip out of her spear, and rapidly expanded it into a larger globe. She then twisted it into a braid of lightning and divided it in two, and sent them out to try and light the way. But while it did appear faintly in the mist, they failed to light a way for them to follow.

"Aeolus! Can you blow this away?" yelled Stara up at the Toa of Air.

He shook his head in reply. "I already hard-tried. This deep-fog doesn't want be wind-carried away."

Japoro didn't add to the conversation, but his thoughts were obvious: _How are we going to get to Notus now?_ But, as if in reply to his despair, a strong gust of wind blew through, making the mist dissipate and unveiling the black island ahead. Everyone shot looks at Aeolus, eyebrows raised, but he looked nonplussed about the looks and the wind.

They sailed closer to the stark rock island jutting out of the sea before them, until they could go no farther in the ship without getting caught in the shallows. They then disembarked, Amphitrite becoming a Proto Drake and carrying Stara in her claws, Japoro creating an ice slide, and Aeolus using his Mask of Flight to carry Stiaye and himself through the air.

"Déjà vu all over again, isn't it?" Stiaye asked her friend after they landed. Stara merely nodded in response, and they began to make their way up the cliff trail.

As they climbed, the biting air carried the strange scent the Toa and Turaga of Lightning remembered from their last trip here many years ago, back when they had both been Matoran: the scent of danger, fear, death, and mystique that enfolded the island like a cloak that both shunned and invited the curious and adventurous. But oddly enough, the feeling of paralyzing fear that they had suffered from had not made its core-chilling entrance, which, while puzzling (even if the legend they had read that morning had given a theory why), neither were unhappy about.

Without the fear making them sluggish, the group of five made progress quickly, and soon were at the center of the island, where the huge stone monolith sat, hunched over like a bird with its wings folded in on itself. Surrounding it were six stones, each taller than a Toa, and all equally spaced around it. Marked into them were strange symbols for unknown concepts, but none of them wanted to be bothered by these things at the moment. Right now, they were trying to make find a way inside that they knew was there, but couldn't find.

"See anything?" asked Japoro after they had searched the face of the largest rock for any kind of sign.

"Nothing. Hold on," Amphitrite said suddenly in reply, tracing something on the western face of the stone. "Shine some light over here."

Aeolus lifted a lightstone over where the Toa of Water was kneeling. A large circle, about a bio in diameter, was carved into the stone. In the circle was a copy of the same picture of the Spear they had seen earlier that day, painted onto the scroll Stara had shown the Toa. The spear was carved facing down, and there was an arrow carved under it, leaving a gouge in the stone.

"Who'd do that just for decoration?" wondered Aeolus. Japoro leaned over the circle, a look of inspiration in his eyes as he created a miniscule icicle and inserted the tip into the arrow gouge. Gripping it tightly between two fingers, he spun the point around in a clockwise motion, and with a grinding noise, the circle spun with it.

After the spear carving had gone up to facing up at the sky, the circle got stuck where it was, and then another sound – but much louder – rang out, more stone moving against stone. They all snapped their heads up in time to see an entrance big enough for a Toa to walk in open beside them.

"That's one heck of a keystone," quipped Stiaye as they rose back to their feet and made their way to the door.

The group of five descended into the darkness below. The light from the sky filtered into the first part of it for a few minutes, but then it faded, leaving only the light of their lightstones and the sparkling globes of lightning that Stara and Stiaye had conjured up seconds after entrance, all of them resting on the tips of their tools. The light flashed off of the walls as the tunnel sloped down deeper underground, revealing more carvings that seemed very, very old, so old they doubted even a Kanohi Rau would be able to decipher them. Stiaye idly wondered who had carved them. _Mysteries on top of mysteries, all of which have to be solved to stop Deimos._

It could have been five minutes, it could have been an hour – it was impossible to tell in the smothering darkness – but after some time, the ground leveled out under their feet and they emerged out into a large chamber. A faint, liquid trickling sound coming somewhere deeper inside the room suggested there was an underground stream nearby, which surprised the Amari natives: they had always assumed there was no water on Notus. The carvings that had been present above and in the tunnel were on the walls of the room, the occasional lightstone imbedded in the walls breaking up the pattern of symbols.

Before they could begin to figure out if this was the end of the road or not, a loud roar sounded out from ahead, setting off a chain reaction of motion from the group. Stiaye and Amphitrite flanked Aeolus and Japoro, who had created a barrier with their bodies between Stara and the threat, facing deeper into the dank gloom. They waited, hands on their tools, for the danger to reveal itself.

Their firm hold faltered somewhat when the threat reared its head – though _heads_ might be a more appropriate term for it. The creature that came towards them looked like a giant Muaka, easily the size of a Toa on all four legs. Its heads – there were three of them – were those of the Rahi cat as well, but they were mounted on thick snake necks, each long enough to easily enfold one of the Toa in their scaly embrace. All three heads hissed as their body advanced towards the intruders.

Stiaye suddenly realized that her grip on her Electric Spear had slackened, and she looked on the ground, thinking that she had dropped it and was expecting it to be there. But to her surprise, it wasn't, and after looking wildly around for it, she located it – hovering close to the ceiling, along with the weapons of the others. She used her telekinesis to try and yank it down, but she got zero success.

By this time the others had noticed that their weapons were missing, and witnessed her failed attempt to retrieve them. There was a possibility that Aeolus could get them, but no one wanted to abandon their position with a threat so close to them.

"Well," said the Toa of Air, trying to keep his sudden undercut of confidence in the group's chance of success in the battle ahead hidden, "This ought to be deep-interesting."

As if to reply his statement, one of the heads – the center one – hissed and struck at him, fangs narrowly missing his shoulder. At the same time, the other two heads took a snap at Amphitrite and Japoro as well, one of them tearing a piece of shoulder armor off of the Toa of Water.

The Toa sprung into action. The others were about to challenge the creature, but Amphitrite shoved them aside as she activated her mask, turning into a copy of the creature but giving herself four heads instead of three already being used. She hissed and stalked forward at the cat, which immediately forgot about Aeolus and took up a challenging posture before her.

"Does she have a death wish?" asked Stiaye incredulously as she began using her mask again on the tools hovering above them, tugging on them with renewed vigor.

She didn't get an answer from the others, but from the creature, as it lunged for the changed Amphitrite. She reared up onto her hind legs and slammed her front paws onto its shoulders, her four heads hissing as it snapped at the three that reared up and attempted to take pieces off of her. Both were in a fight for dominance, and the others instinctively knew that even if Amphitrite shifted back that the Rahi would continue to fight her until she no longer breathed. And since that the creature was focusing its wrath on her, any obvious attempts by the rest of the group to help her would do more harm than good.

All they could do was give her a better chance to win.

Right now, Stiaye had failed again to pull the weapons off of the ceiling, even with Japoro aiding her with his own telekinesis. Aeolus whispered something to Stara, and then they both shot up into the air with his mask power, and they also made a failed bid to retrieve them, despite the fact that they were using their full body mass to try and yank it down.

"Alright. We do this without weapons then," Stiaye stated with a glance over her shoulder at the mutant Muaka and the transformed Amphitrite that were still deadlocked, though the real thing was beginning to make a comeback from the edge she had gained from the forefront of the fight.

"What if we made a few _environmental_ changes to spook the Muaka?" Stara proposed, and the others nodded in agreement. "Then here's what we'll do . . ."

After the Turaga of Lightning had outlined her plan, the remaining four took up positions. At her signal, Japoro placed his palms on the ground and began to generate a thin but slippery sheet of ice that stretched beneath the tri-headed menace that was dealing blows to Amphitrite, who was beginning to back away. A wave of intense cold heralded its approach, freezing parts of the pelts of both felines into spikes of rigid, frosted, fur.

The Toa of Water quickly figured out what was happening, and forced the other cat to back up with a few swipes to its heads along with a grip on the scruffs of all three heads. She shook them hard before tossing the creature to the icy floor. Hissing, it tried to rise, but the mutant slipped on the ice and ended up on the floor again.

Amphitrite quickly returned to her normal form, which looked alright save for a few new scratches on her armor, but lacking major flesh wounds. Japoro quickly told her the next part of the plan while he continued to keep the Muaka on ice, and she raced to join Aeolus, Stara, and Stiaye for the next part of the plan.

On the other side of the room, Stara had located the underground stream with her mask power and with Stiaye's lightning had exposed it to the eyes of the group. As the water began to pool in a hollow that Stiaye had shaped, Aeolus began to whip up a whirlwind and spun it into the hollow, turning it into a waterspout. Stiaye and Stara added their lightning to the mix, blending with the water to make it much more dangerous while Amphitrite made the water spurt out and slam into the targets with high-pressure water with lightning intertwined.

Their deadly creation finished, they stepped back from it and Aeolus began to spin the tornado towards the mutant Muaka, who had finally regained its footing and was advancing on Japoro, who had created a sword of very strong ice to fend its heads and claws off. "Japoro! Incoming!" yelled Amphitrite as she held control over the water, keeping it from escaping the fast winds of the tornado.

Japoro saw it coming and activated his Mask of Telekinesis, using it to pick up the Muaka and throw it clear into the trajectory of the tornado, even as he dove out of the way.

The creature screamed out a blood-chilling roar as it was twirled by wind and slammed with lightning-laced water. Soon, it was too much for it to bear, and it threw itself out and trembled on the ground as further electrocution occurred. Ironically, it was lying under the weapons that had taken a flight away from their owners, and it was even more ironic as they suddenly all fell on it – pointed ends down.

The scream was cut off by a choking sound as the points buried themselves into the creature's flesh. But before anyone could start to feel sorry for its death, the three-headed Muaka's form began to shimmer. Before their eyes, the creature soundlessly vanished before the eyes of the surprised group.

"An illusion?" Amphitrite finally suggested, staring at the place where it had laid. She didn't sound very convinced by her own theory, and everyone knew it.

"Whatever it was, I think we should get moving," Stara said with a business-like air, retrieving her staff from the ground after it had gotten stuck in the floor. She moved to the back of the room, where the Toa now noticed a second set of symbols like the ones above ground that had opened the door. The Turaga of Lightning turned the spearhead around the disk again until it stopped at the face-up position, and then pushed it deeper into the wall.

With a rush of air, a door slid back and behind the wall that housed it. After they all had retrieved their tools and lightstones, the group plunged into the cold, unwelcome dark of the tunnel ahead, leaving the faint glow of the room behind them.

After another period of indefinable time in a sloping, curving corridor, the walls pulled away again as they entered another faintly-lit room: though _hall_ might be a better word for it. Two rows of statues formed a walkway between them, and lightstones on the walls and ceiling illuminated other rows of statues standing like soldiers at attention to some unseen commander. The threshold of the narrow passage through the statues was before the group, marked with elemental symbols.

_Who carved these?_ wondered Japoro as he looked at the statues. They were of Toa, all having different armor styles, masks, and tools. Some of them looked ancient, like they had been here forever, while others looked relatively new, as if they had been carved within the past century. All of them shared a common feature, though: they all had glass eyes in their faces.

For a few moments, nobody moved or spoke. Then Amphitrite broke the silence.

"Are we gonna stand here all night?" she asked to the room at large. And without waiting for an answer, she boldly stepped down and placed her foot over the line of elemental symbols on the floor.

And nothing happened. The lights didn't go out. The walls didn't start closing in. Nothing.

Emboldened by her success, the others followed her lead. When they were all over the line, they began making their way down the passage formed by the stoic Toa statues.

After they had gone about a quarter of a way down the passage, a wind that smelled stale and dry whistled towards them, blowing dust into their eyes. Everyone shot accusing looks at Aeolus, but he looked just as startled as they were. That was when Stiaye noticed the eye of some of the statues seemed to glow with an otherworldly light.

Then – _they_ appeared.

They did not walk – they floated out of those statues that had that flicker of ethereal light in their eyes and moved gracefully through the air towards the travelers, six in all. All of them looked like they had been at the peak of their power when they had died – for they were indeed dead. They were clad in armor that were in the faded colors of their elements, which glowed with an eerie, light green luminescence. Even their powers were mere shadows of what they had been; as they watched, a Toa that bore pale red armor and a Zatth sent a blast of fire that should have been unbearable hot, especially to Japoro, but instead felt muted and soft, the touch of another's warm hand when you were cold.

The Toa of Fire, when he noticed the surprised looks of the living beings, rolled his eyes. "It takes three of us to make anything really happen," he said matter-of-factly. His voice, like everything else about him, seemed like merely an echo of what it had once been.

"Enough of that," ordered the shade of a Water Toa wearing a Kaukau, whose long-dead eyes never left the five who had entered their realm. "We aren't supposed to be telling these ones our secrets – what if they are servants of the half-being we've been striving against for the last weeks?"

"Wait a minute, sister," a Toa of Air with a Miru cut in. "Hasn't the Chieftain been saying that Ajax had foreseen visitors from among the living coming here?"

"Even more reason to be rid of them!" insisted the Toa of Water. "He never told us whether to allow them on or not! We can't take chances with a Black One near; we ought to erase their memories of what they have seen in this place and send them away." The ones she was referring to shivered at the thought of losing their memories by some unknown force.

"We could just _ask_," the Air Toa said sarcastically a few seconds later, after the ringing of the female's tirade faded somewhat. Amphitrite seemed to find her tongue again at this point.

"Actually, if you're asking us, I think we'd rather not get our memories wiped," she responded cheekily. The others in her group looked at her, looking mortified.

"Amph!" hissed Stiaye, elbowing her in the ribs. But before the Toa of Water could make a comeback statement, she got drowned out by the echoing laughter of the better part of the spirit entourage. The Toa of Air, Fire, and the other three members – one of Lightning, one of Psionics, and one of Plasma – were all snickering while the Toa of Water spirit looked miffed.

"Looks like someone stood you up, Cascata," laughed the Lightning Toa spirit, a grin appearing behind her Faxon as she shot an approving look at Amphitrite. The group of living beings were more interested in the name "Cascata" though: they recognized it from the legend they had read.

The laughing mood finally faded, and the group sobered up a bit. "Like I was saying: we should let the Chieftain decided what to do with them; we can't go playing Mata Nui with their heads until we know we are supposed to," continued the Toa of Air like there had been no interruption, although he did look approving of Amphitirite's interjection that had knocked down Cascata a few pegs. Cascata, after thinking for a few seconds, nodded her head in consent and began floating down the hallway passage again.

"Come on," the Lightning spirit said, a small jolt of electricity flying from her insubstantial hand and smacking the Toa in the masks. While it didn't hurt terribly, it did pass along the message: they were to get moving, and they complied to the wishes of the ghosts.

Marched along by their ethereal captors, Staiye's group walked down the walkway after the spirit Cascata, between the statues whose eyes glowed from the light of the lightstones on the walls, though none of them carried the otherworldly light that signified that a ghost lurked within.

Eventually, they came to the end of the passage, where the wall was covered in carvings that made it look something like a gate, although that there was no door. Two other statues stood like guards on either side; their glass eyes had the green glow of the spirit realm. Two other ghosts – a Toa of Fire with a gold Hau and a Toa of Air with a Volitak – floated out of them, which Japoro now noticed looked exactly like the Toa that occupied them. They surveyed the group silently, eyes lingering on the four Toa and the Turaga, then nodded in unison and passed clear through the wall, leaving a faint green trail behind them.

Stiaye realized that her mouth had fallen open and quickly closed it.

"Come," said the Air Toa, holding out his hand. Stiaye eyed it doubtfully, but reached out and took it.

To her surprise, his hand was somewhat substantial, like air turned semi-solid. At the same time, her body seemed to shiver unconsciously, and she looked down to see her body had become transparent, like she was briefly one of the spirits herself.

The Air spirit then began to walk towards the wall, pulling her along with him. Stiaye reflexively closed her eyes as they were just inches from the wall, but then felt a strange, sucking feeling around her body, like she had been turned to jelly and was being pulled through a tiny hole with unrelenting force. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't comfortable either.

"Open your eyes."

Stiaye obeyed the command without really thinking about it. They immediately flew all the way open in shock as she saw where they were.

The cavern that they were standing in was huge, which looked larger than the island above implied it was. Within the huge stone walls was what looked like another version of the underground village Onu-Koro that Stara had told her about years ago. Huts were carved in the walls and stacked up on top of each other, although they had no doors. But, Stiaye reasoned, that since they could walk through solid objects that of course they didn't need doors.

The spirits that had gone through the wall before them had vanished, but there were plenty more to take their place. Ghosts by the dozen were gathered in the cavern, some chatting in groups, others floating closer to the ceiling. Few had noticed the living that had joined them, but those who had watched curiously.

The Air spirit released her hand, and Stiaye felt herself become solid again. She turned and saw the rest of her group finish walking through the wall, looking a bit strange with their semi-transparent appearances. Amphitrite and Aeolus, it seemed, were the only ones that had kept their eyes open as they walked though the walls, but judging from the speed they released the hands of the Plasma and Fire spirits that had brought them through the walls, they hadn't found the eyes-wide experience very pleasant.

"Follow me," Cascata said, gesturing to the group as she passed through alone and moved to the head. Without another word, she began to make her way through the crowd of other ghosts, who pulled away to let her pass; it was obvious that she held a powerful position down here under the surface of the island of the dead, despite the fact the position the legend had said she held belonged to someone else.

The group moved after her, in the wake of moving ghosts that made room for them to pass. Groups of them watched the small unit of the existing with interest; Stiaye could feel their gaze boring holes into them from behind. A small crowd of female Toa spirits giggled behind their hands as they watched the two living males pass them by, making said males somewhat uncomfortable and Amphitrite at least a little territorial.

Stiaye noticed Stara looking almost casually around her, like she was searching for someone in particular among the spirits, and she quickly guessed who that someone – or _someones_ – were. According to the legend, it would make sense that Kronus and the other Toa Rohaya would be here, since they had met their deaths at the hands of halflings. But though she also offhandedly looked around, she saw no one that resembled the team that Stara had served with in the crowd around them. That may have been because of her own eyes, however – the transparent bodies of the phantom Toa blended together in a pale, colorful mass that made discerning the Toa they sought out nearly impossible.

Finally, they came to a hut that was larger than the ones that surrounded it. While the stone structures around it were one-story, this one was three. While the ones surrounding were plain, this one was a bit more decorated. But, as usual to the ghosts, this one had no door.

Cascata passed straight through the wall without hesitation, and as the procession continued without pause in the same direction, Stiaye heeded the warning that took form in the partly substantial hand of her spirit guard slipping into her own and shut her eyes tight, not wanting to see the wall coming towards her.

They ended up in an antechamber, Cascata nowhere to be seen. Stiaye looked around and it was clear they all had shut their eyes this time when they had passed through the wall. She could hear something – music? – coming from behind the wall before them. Her Air Toa spirit guard hadn't let go of her hand, but when she tried to move on, he pulled her back. She bent to his ministrations, partly in shock that he was able to do that. "What –" she began to ask.

"Wait. Cascata is telling the Chief and his group that you're here. He'll make the decision about what happens to you and your friends."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the shade of the Toa of Water shot through the wall, leaving a trail of green, insubstantial ectoplasm behind her. "He says that he wants to see them. Though maybe a better word for it would be _insisted_ to see them." She said these words almost reluctantly, like this was against her better ideas – or maybe she just didn't like the Chief. "He wants them to enter. I'm to go inform Ajax of them being here." And with that, she passed back through the wall behind them.

"Ignore her," murmured the Lightning spirit. "She's just a little resentful of him. She was the Chief before he came here, and she really didn't want to give it up."

"We better not keep him and the entourage waiting," said the Fire spirit. "Let's go." And with that, they all walked through the wall before them.

The room they ended up in was huge, and like the cavern it was inside of, it seemed much larger from the inside. The walls were elegantly carved, patterned with what seemed like hieroglyphics. Stiaye wondered if this served as a Wall of History down here, and that someone here was a Chronicler. Then something else seized her attention – the music ceased – and she turned her gaze to who stood within.

Eighteen Toa were bunched up on a stepped dais, eyes fastened on the group. The phantoms that had escorted the living stepped back and bowed down in a gesture of respect, eyes lowered to the ground. One of the Toa in the entourage – a Toa of Sonics, sitting on the steps, clad in grey armor so pale he looked the most like a ghost of all of them – had a harp in his hands. Its music had been stilled with his hands as his eyes fixed on the group. They all seemed to be focused on one person in particular, and when Stiaye and Amphitrite followed their gaze, Stara realized they were all looking at her for some reason and ducked her head, embarrassed at the attention.

One of the Toa – a Lightning Toa with a Komau on her face – stepped forward, eyes unblinking, yet seeming to sparkle like they might have had in life, as she looked the at Stara –and by extension, her companions.

"Rise," she spoke. Her voice, like those of the other ghosts, was an echo of what it had been in life, but it seemed to speak about her: that she had been someone perpetually happy, and never had her spirits dampened. Stara inhaled sharply, like she recognized the voice, but before her friend could ask who it was, a small strum came from the dais as the Sonics Toa ran his fingers over the strings, like he was announcing something – and when Stiaye looked up again, she realized he had.

The group of eighteen had pulled away from the center of the stepped dais and lowered their heads in respect to the Toa that had been revealed by them pulling back. His armor color identified him as a Toa of Gravity, but it was near impossible to make out his Kanohi from the shadow that his head was wreathed in.

With one hand, he beckoned to the group. Somewhat nervously, the group moved forward, knowing in their hearts that this was the new Spirit Chief that they had been told about. Their guards stayed were they were. Stara's eyes were flicking from the faces of the entourage, recognition in them as she saw them.

They stopped about two bio before him, eyes on his veiled face. The Spirit Chief walked down towards them, the shroud vanishing as he left the spot that hid his face from their sight. And when he hit the bottom step, his face was in full view of the living ones that had entered his domain. He spread out his hands as in welcome as he spoke.

"At last," he said. "It has been so long."

The words barely had left his mouth to hang in the air when Stara gasped out his name.

"Kronus!"

**XxX**

Kronus fans, I believe that's your cue to happydance. =P


	17. Below the Black

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 16

_Stara lifted her head to the sky, obviously troubled for some reason. "Kronus, aren't you getting the feeling that something's wrong here?" she asked, her voice reflecting her nervousness. _

"_You worry too much, Stara," the Toa of Gravity said to her, clapping a hand on her shoulder. "If you'd let those instincts of yours take a rest, it would really be better for you. You aren't an exile amongst us." Stara flinched at that reminder, and shot an irritated look that he seemed to not notice. He was already moving away, climbing up a rocky ridge deeper into the forest of pines. "Come on." Stara sighed but followed him, just happy that her nightmares had vanished the night after they had left Rohaya. _

_A few feet later, something started pulling at her feet, an inexorable yet alien urge that had to be fulfilled. At the same time, a sort of dread began to fill her; her instincts, the ones that Kronus had poked fun at just seconds earlier, were kicking in again, and she seemed to feel Rohaya itself warning her of danger. She activated her Ceray, using it to add to her speed, and rapidly outstripped the Toa of Gravity, completely ignoring his calls of "Hey! What the – Stara, wait up!" This was too urgent to wait for._

_She reached the crest of a covered hill, shielded by some of Matsu's favorite pine trees. The fortress was in view through the branches, and for a few seconds she thought that maybe nothing was wrong._ Maybe Kronus has a point. This is going to make me a twitchy paranoid the way this is going.

_But those thoughts were dashed the second the tree line thinned enough for her to see clearly, and she froze, her legs and eyes locked in the positions they had been when she had seen this horrid sight. _

_Kronus crashed through the underbrush close behind, and she flinched at the loud noise against the unnatural quiet backdrop of their home. Whirling, paralysis broken, she threw him back amongst the trees with her hands, desperation fueling her actions along with morbidity; she completely ignored his protests of, "Whoa! Stara, what's with you?"_

"_Be silent!" she hissed urgently to him, and he obediently clapped his mouth down on his tongue, although his eyes still smoldered. For a second, Stara realized why Eos liked the Toa of Gravity. "What is it?" he asked again, though much quieter than he had earlier._

"_Look and you will see," she said, turning her face away from the fortress, not wanting to be greeted with that horrid sight again. Even when she had been on nastier places like Stelt she hadn't seen anything this sickening. _

_Kronus peered through the screen of branches, then retched and drew back, his face growing paler behind his mask. "Who – What –" he choked, his eyes glazing over in shock and horror._

"_That's what I'd like to know," Stara said grimly, looking against her will again at the stone stronghold, making a face again as she beheld the graphic change that had occurred over the four days they had been absent._

_Eighteen Toa of different elements were hanging off the ramparts, decaying in the sun, hanging by nooses made of Matsu's plant fiber ropes._

"Why are you here?" Stara rapidly corrected herself as she realized the obvious answer to her question. "I mean –"

" – Why am I the Chieftain?" finished the Toa of Gravity, his smile – a real one – still on his face. "It's a long story."

"I've got time to hear it."

The deceased Toa of Gravity nodded understandingly, than flicked his gaze to the spirits that had brought Stara and her companions into their realm. "Leave us," he said, in a tone of voice that commanded respect. "Say what you will, but make it clear that they are not to be harmed."

The shades rose, bowed, and drifted back outside the way they had come. For some reason, there was a palpable air of excitement about them, almost like static electricity in the air, but they were gone before anyone could question it.

"Where do you want us to start?" Eos, Toa of Water, asked them, her eyes softer in death than they ever were in life.

"After you died. How did Kronus wind up replacing Cascada?"

Stiaye wanted to yell in frustration; they were supposed to be talking to Ajax about gaining the Spear, not this! However, she bit back her tongue. Stara hadn't seen her teammates alive since before the Rohaya Massacre, and she herself would be lying if she said she wasn't a bit curious about the subject herself. Besides, they were still awaiting the signal for them to descend. So, she listened, as the Toa Rohaya (she recognized them all from her Turaga's stories) spun the tale.

"When the halflings killed us," Amaya began, "we were just floating; I guess that's the best description for it. Just in a misty version of this world."

"No need to romantisize it, sister," Paytah chided.

"I'm just telling it like I saw it, lava-brain," she retorted, eyes sparking behind her Faxon. Rolling her eyes behind them, Alvis, the other Lightning Toa of the old team, pointed at the pair and mouthed, _Fifty years here and not much has changed._

Stara looked faintly amused, but cut into the argument with, "Then the spirits brought you here?"

"Yes," Kronus said hastily, like he too wanted to head off another argument between his fellow dead teammates. "I was brought here after Kiria killed me. Ajax was in the Cavern when I arrived, though."

"It was strange – according to some of the other spirits, Ajax hardly ever came up to the Cavern of Souls; he usually passes messages up to Cascata," put in Atlas, Iron Toa of Rohaya. "Then he told Cascata that he had seen a vision of the future, and it was extremely important that it was passed on to her and Kronus." By now, the other spirits had turned to Baird, the Sonics Toa and their main storyteller, who rose to the occasion.

"He told her that the vision signified that their duty was near an end, that someone would come and they would gain the Spear. He also said that when they came, a new Chieftain would be in place, and that was Kronus."

"She didn't take that too well," Crevan said grimly. "Even in the short time we'd known her up to that moment we'd known she liked her position of power, and she didn't let go of it easy."

"She challenged Kronus for the title, and Kronus accepted – he'd had no choice," Egan added. Something about him made Stara's face pink behind her mask, but the story kept going before Stiaye could question it.

"We won't bore you with the details, but Kronus won, though it cost him a bit," Althea said, nodding towards the Gravity Toa, who obligingly pulled off his Iden for them to see the injury. "Took all my energy and Catriona's to fix wounds dealt in this state."

The living goggled at him. Kronus's face had a huge scar, stretching from his forehead to his throat, going over his right eye on the way.

"Cascata lost, but she's a sore loser," Washi said, his face serious for once. Except for the fact he was a ghost and his armor was a different shade of green, he was a near-perfect mirror of Aeolus. "I overheard her complaining to Ajax not long after Kronus was appointed; she hated being beaten by a 'normal Toa'."

"But Rohayan Toa are hardly normal," Stara said. "The island's power called to us and made us strong."

Kronus nodded. "She doesn't understand that. She obeyed Ajax, though, and surrendered her position. She was the one that possessed the Chronicler of your village long ago and wrote down the legend, so Ajax's vision from long ago could have a chance to be thwarted."

"You can possess Matoran?" a surprised Japoro asked.

"Yes, but it takes some effort," Alvis explained. "We can do the same with Toa and Turaga, but that's even harder, especially when your soul hasn't departed your body by way of a Kanohi Iden. It also keeps us from showing who we are in that state, since we sometimes leave behind memories of whom we are if we force a share with a living being."

"By the way, Kronus, you were the one that lead my Matoran and I to find the record of the legend, weren't you?" Stara asked shrewdly.

The spirit in question nodded. "How could you tell?"

"I caught a few glimpses when on the spirit plane myself. Not to mention that I've known you long enough to recognize your presence."

A deep humming suddenly filled the air, cutting off any more discussion, and while the only effect it had on the living beings was confusing them, it immediately caught the attention of the _lemures_, who shut their eyes and seemed to be concentrating on a voice only they could hear. About a minute later, the sound ceased, and the ghosts of the Toa Rohaya opened their eyes again. "Ajax has summoned you below the Cavern of Souls to speak to you," Baird said calmly; Stiaye guessed that the humming was a way amongst the spirits to communicate over distances. "Kronus," he added, turning towards the Chieftain, "he's requesting that you, Eos, Alvis, Egan, Ares, and Atlas accompany them there."

"Understood," the deceased Toa of Gravity said, and the Toa of Sonics plucked a few stings of his harp, sending another hum through the air that the living guessed was in answer to the previous sound. As the notes pealed out, the spirits the grey phantom had named moved to join the group of the living. Kronus took the hand of Stara, while Stiaye, Amphitrite, Japoro, and Aeolus linked hands with Alvis, Eos, Atlas, and Egan respectively.

As they walked through the walls that opened them back into the cavern, the huge crowd of ghosts outside were waiting; obviously the group that had accompanied Cascata had told them everything they had found out. Their long-dead eyes seemed to hold some new spark in them, one that suggested that they felt hope for some reason. As they moved towards the opposite end of the cavern they had come in from, Stara questioned the looks.

"There are rumors that if the Spear passes on, the curse will end and we can truly die," Kronus replied in an undertone to her. "They feel that you and your friends will be the ones that break the curse that binds us here, but it is only a hope right now, even to me. Ajax, Cascata, and Audra are the only ones that know how the curse works exactly, and they haven't told us how it can be undone."

"Why did you come here? Why do you listen to him, if he won't tell you how can be released?" the Turaga of Lightning murmured, a strong undertone in her voice suggesting she now didn't think very highly of the deceased Toa of Fire.

The Toa of Gravity spirit sighed. "It's a complicated thing to explain; you'll understand when you meet him why we put up with lingering and the curse that forces us to. And Eos brought me here, not him, and she had embraced her duty. After nearly losing her and the others forever, I was willing to do whatever it took to stay with them a bit longer."

By this time, the group of five living and six spirits had reached the opposite wall; the silent ghosts had drawn back to let them have space enough, though there was plenty of room already. Carved into the wall – probably by some of the earliest ghosts that had come here by the power of the curse – were images, probably of the war Ajax and his living followers had fought against the Brotherhood in their real universe. Central to the images was a picture of a powerful-looking Toa with a unique mask; more like a Mask of Clairvoyance that had had its base features enhanced and made more regal. On that mask was a bold image of a fire that seemed to burn on his face.

Kronus and his group took the hands of their companions again and pulled them through the wall, ending in them inside another corridor that led further beneath the surface of the black isle.

As they descended deeper, the luminosity of the leading ghosts the only light in the dark, Amphitrite found herself behind the group and lagging, an unusual occurrence for her; normally she would be at the head of the group in new environments. She was uneasy, to say the least, of this new place, and figured there was something darker about the inhabitants that Kronus and his entourage weren't telling them about. True, the ghosts here didn't seem dangerous to anyone except their blood enemies and inquisitive Matoran that came here when they shouldn't. But some instinct told her something here wasn't right in this final tunnel.

Her feelings were justified in the form of a cold, clammy touch on her right shoulder. She spun around, facing the way they had come, and icy needles drove into her spine.

The ghosts behind her – five in all – looked nothing like the gleaming shades that they had seen earlier. These ones had sunken, skull-like faces, huge, empty eye sockets, and grins not unlike those of Skakdi, although none of them were of that species. Black ectoplasm swirled around their skeletal frames, hiding whatever colors they had been in life.

The Toa of Water began to back away, even as she opened her mouth to call out a warning, but she was too slow. A hand suddenly snared her throat and lifted her up with ease.

Amphitrite immediately noticed a difference between Ajax's group and these spirits, besides the obvious physical (was that even the proper word for it?) ones. The strength of the bright spirits was enough to hold Toa like Stiaye back, but they didn't seem powerful enough to be more than a living Toa's average strength. These black ones, however, seemed more powerful than two Toa to her, maybe even stronger than the infamous halfling Tayra.

Gasping for air, she flailed out with her feet, but they only passed through her captor's body. Desperately, she attempted to make herself smaller through the power of her Mahiki, but she couldn't concentrate enough to make it happen.

Already her mind was drifting away . . .

But then, a flash of energy passed over her darkening vision; she was only partly aware of it, though. The pressure released, but her windpipe still seemed choked as someone lowered her to the ground. From the area around her throat she felt cold, and the cold rose up towards her head as well as down, towards her heartlight. Even as she gasped, trying to get the oxygen she was lacking into her lungs, she dimly heard voices yammering above her; the same questions, over and over, but in different variants.

"What _were_ those things?"

"What's happening to her?"

Words. They didn't mean much to her. The haze in her oxygen-starved mind fogged the voices; she couldn't place them to names, faces, or elements. Then a female voice cut through the frozen fog that engulfed her, and it wasn't one of her companions.

"Move aside. I'll heal her."

A delicious, warm feeling overcame her, calling back memories of lazy days in Shi-Nui, floating along on the Skywood Lake. The cold, ice-like feeling that gripped her upper body, just shy of clutching her heartlight, vanished, melting away in the face of that power, and she sucked in a deep breath as she sat up, the area around her coming in clear through her eyes again. Eos was crouching over her, pale blue streamers retreating into her hands, with Japoro and Stiaye hovering anxiously behind her. Stara and Aeolus were facing the walls around them with the rest of Kronus' group. The black skull-heads were nowhere to be seen.

"You alright?" asked Eos, taking the hand of the living Toa of Water and helping her rise back to her feet. Her friends drew closer to her, but Amphitrite brushed them off impatiently. "I'm fine, I'm fine . . . what were those things that attacked me?"

"Dark Ones. I wasn't expecting them to go after you with us around," replied Kronus, turning away from the wall he was facing, though some of the others were still staring attentively at the stone.

"Dark Ones?" repeated Stara.

Still examining the wall he was facing (which Amphitrite suspected her attackers had fled through), Egan replied this time. "Sometimes there are those who don't wish to serve fully, or don't want to serve at all. Sometimes the curse Ajax and the other ancients created drags beings we don't want onto our plane of reality. When that happens we give them a chance to perform the duty they are bound to do in some way, and sometimes they do willingly aid us; those make up the Muaka you encountered closer to the surface. Those who cannot or will not help us are banished beneath the Cavern of Souls to the black rock below. Over time, they lose their resemblance to us, but they grow stronger, with the power to induce a chill that can kill someone amongst the living if the cold spreads unchecked, and the ones they kill become one of them.

"We have a bit of control over them – just enough to use their power to create the fear-fog that wraps around Notus – but they prey on us and the living whenever they can. Only their fear of Ajax's retribution keeps them from leaving Notus and preying on the Matoran that live beyond the shores."

"But that's harsh-cruel," protested Aeolus.

"What would you have us do differently?" challenged Ares as he turned around to face the Toa of Air. "They can't go back, because no one can return to life after death. And since none of us can go on because of the curse that binds us here, they are trapped in a limbo with us. We just exist here, neither living nor dead. All we can really do is keep them from preying on the living by holding them beneath the black rock." Aeolus scowled at the phantom of the Toa of Magnetism, but didn't argue the logic in his statements.

"We better get moving before they come back. They've gone for now, but they'll be back for revenge – and they'll bring more friends this time," Atlas said, quickly attempting to defuse the tension that had suddenly sprung up between Aeolus and his friend, although it seemed that he agreed with the Toa of Air with his opinion on the treatment of the exiled ghosts; he flashed a look that suggested that as he spoke, but the Toa of Magnetism just rolled his black-blue eyes at the Toa of Iron.

"Right, let's get moving," Kronus said briskly, eager to put the fight behind them. "Hurry – we're not far away, but the Dark Ones will try again to get us before we get there."

"Can't we just go through the wall again?" asked Japoro, as he and his friends tried to keep pace with the ghosts; they were floating rather quickly.

"No, we're too susceptible to their attacks that way," replied Alvis, her glinting eyes serious for once as she turned back around to face the Toa of Ice. "Besides, if we let you or the others go, you'll get fused to the rock, and we won't be able to save you." The living ones shuddered to think of that fate, especially Aeolus.

Mercifully, the rest of the journey beneath the surface to the last place there was uneventful, though Kronus' group was ever watchful for danger.

Their journey ended at a stone wall, par usual for the spirits beneath the black isle. This one had a huge carving of the Spear facing them, the object surrounded with tiny Matoran letters that Japoro could barely read. They were about to pass through when Stara, who had turned her head to look back, called out a warning, and they all turned to see more Dark Ones swooping down towards them from further up the tunnel, eyes blazing with greed as they beheld the fragile lives ready to be taken.

Alvis whirled around with Egan, and together they unleashed their power. But then it became clear how much they were indeed shadows: their powers didn't seem to do much to the shades other than annoy them and spur them on.

"Stiaye!" cried Amphitrite, her voice carrying the one emotion she had never thought she would hear on it: fear. After all, those things had just nearly killed her.

Stiaye didn't hesitate; she flung her hands up into the air, and a web of electricity was rapidly woven between her fingers, quickly escaping the loom to become a tapestry of crackling lightning before her and the rest of the group, the weave thickening and the gaps between the strands becoming nonexistent.

The Dark Ones barely hesitated, but the first one hit the weaving with a screech akin to metal against metal, a sound that grated the ears of the living ones around the Lightning Toa. It scrambled backwards into the rest of the group with a hiss, angered by the denial of what it wanted.

"Quick!" yelled Kronus, gesturing towards the wall they needed to get through. "Stiaye, keep doing that; we'll pull you through with us. And whatever you do, don't stop!"

Stiaye was a little nervous about the idea of using her power while the ghosts phased her through the solid rock, but nonetheless kept up her efforts, adding more juice to her weaving. The electricity crackled menacingly as the weaving thickened.

A chilly hand came down on her shoulder and dragged her back, the now-familiar feeling of a ghost turning her insubstantial covering her even as the black rock claimed her.

The sensation of passing through a solid rock while generating electricity was an interesting one, even painful for the Toa of Lightning. She could still hear the unearthly screams of the black ghosts outside, but the sound suddenly vanished when she cleared the rock and the hand was released, like the thin layer was enough to muffle the sound.

She deeply breathed in, trying to regain her energy; it was like the touch of her ghostly savior had drained elemental energy while she had used it, making her use more than she really needed to. She took another breath, and turned to face her rescuer: Alvis. "Thanks," she murmured, as she brushed by the ghostly Toa of Lightning to join her friends. Amphitrite patted her friend's shoulder as she joined them with Kronus at the head of their group.

On a rectangular block of stone in the center of the rough chamber, curtained by the curls of damp mist, lay the weapon they sought. Ajax's Spear was sitting on top of the undecorated rock, resembling a weapon like any other, were it not for the faint glow of otherworldly hands that had held it in the past.

A pair of those hands, attached to the body they had been part of before its mortal death, were floating before the living. Ajax was just a few feet before them, garbed in ghostly armor in faded shades of crimson, scarlet, and maroon. There was a sense of power and majesty to him, even though the armor and mask he wore were simple and unassuming, save for the fiery print that dominated his mask.

Beside him on either side were two other Toa spirits, both female, one whom they recognized: Cascata, the former leader of the souls above, her faded eyes cold. The other was a Lightning Toa, well-armored and giving off a friendly air; instinctively Stiaye knew that her ghostly relative in element was Audra, Ajax's fellow marauder in both life and death.

Instinctively, the Toa of Lightning's group began to kneel, but he stopped them with his words. "No, friends, do not kneel before us. We meet and speak as equals."

His voice was as regal as his armor, and had a charisma that blended with the cultured formality of his words that made people feel like they had known him all their lives. He neither looked up to them nor looked down on them; he indeed saw them as his equals, regardless if they wound up being his enemy in the end. It was the voice of someone that did not feel fear.

Then and there, Stara realized just why Kronus and the other Toa of the Cavern of Souls put up with being between life and death.

Cascata seemed to dislike Ajax's edict for the living to not kneel, but a sharp glance from Audra kept her from saying anything rash. She seemed to shrink back sulkily, not looking at any of them, her glaring gaze as hard as Japoro's ice.

Ajax seemed to not notice the behavior of his female friends – or maybe he was just used to it. "Cascata has told me that the vision has come to pass, Kronus," he said, his words directed towards his Chieftain.

"Yes, it has. Stara and her friends have come for the Spear, just as you foresaw fifty years ago."

Ajax let his gaze roam over the five living beings. "And with the danger nearby, I am more than willing to give it to them."

Stiaye felt relief flood through her at his words; there would be no initial difficulty negotiating with Ajax to get the Spear they needed. Indeed, he seemed relived at the thought of getting rid of it. But then, Cascata finally spoke up, her voice seemingly smug for some reason.

"You can't just give it to them, Ajax," she said in that lofty sort of tone that always made Stiaye want to use the speaker as a cannonball. "You know about the conditions of the curse we lay on the Spear's ownership."

Stiaye half-expected Ajax or Audra to take offence with her, but both seemed to agree with her.

"Cascata is correct, sadly," the deceased Toa of Lighting said, finally speaking. "Part of the spell we lay on the Spear was to keep it from being used by the wrong beings. Only those who pass the test can claim the Spear."

"What's the test?" Stara asked steadily.

In response, Ajax's mask glowed faintly, giving the fire imprint a light gold sheen as an orb gathered itself into the palm of his hand.

"Knowing the future," he said, "without having the power to change it . . . it is a double-edged sword. You could see something go right, but know something will go wrong, even though you try to change it. Ignorance can be bliss, but the one who can carry the Spear freely is the one that can share a vision of their immediate future with me . . . share it, and accept that they can face it without being able to change it, no matter what they do . . . they are the ones that can touch the Spear."

Stiaye thought for a few seconds. Since she was technically the team leader, she ought to be the one that stepped up and took the risk. It was a risk to one's sanity, knowing the future without having the power to change it: there were stories of people who had been driven to madness by that sort of choice. But, there was something that made her hesitate. There was little she wanted more right now than to save her homeland from Deimos. But what if her future didn't show that? What if it showed that she would fail?

She glanced at Japoro and Amphitrite, who were on either side of the Toa of Lightning, out of the corner of her eyes; both seemed to feel the same way as she about the test: willing yet unwilling. Cascata seemed to swell, unbearably smug, when a voice finally spoke up.

"I'll do it," Aeolus, Toa of Air said, stepping up to face Ajax.

**XxX**

*Indiana Jones music*


	18. Calm Before the Storm

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 17

"_What are we gonna do about this?"_

_Stara posed a very good question. They had boarded their small ship again and had retrieved the halfling tablets, which they knew they'd need for later. No destination had been in mind when they had pushed off again – they just wanted to put some space between themselves and the halflings. _

"_We need to get to Metru Nui and tell the Toa Metru about their teammates," Kronus reasoned. "It would be wrong to not let them know about that."_

"_Maybe, but they won't believe us without proof. Our word and the tablets are one thing, but they'd want to know how they wound up becoming prisoners in the first place. And since we're the bearers of bad news, they will probably put us under suspicion."_

"_Then that's our next order of business," the Toa of Gravity decided, moving to adjust their position. "We need to find some people that have an ear for news. They can tell us what happened."_

Stiaye's mouth tried to convey her words of shock, but she failed to speak as he stepped forward, his Kadin-masked face hiding any feelings of apprehension. Amphitrite and Japoro seemed equally surprised as their teammate came mask-to-mask with Ajax, ready to receive a vision of a future he could not change. Cascata seemed simply infuriated, but with this facing her, she seemed to deflate, sinking backwards to the rear of the chamber.

Ajax, his mask glowing and the glowing gold orb bouncing in his palm, nodded as the Toa of Air reached out to touch the energy, and he held it forward until it came into contact with his hand.

Both spirit and living being stiffened as the energy they now shared flowed through them, making a faint sheen of light over their bodies. Their eyes snapped shut, hiding whatever expression they felt to the vision they were sharing to the others, shoulders tense.

They remained like that for what must've been about a minute, but for those that were watching Aeolus and Ajax, it felt much, much longer. Stiaye fidgeted nervously, rubbing the shaft of her weapon, seeking reassurance from the smooth, worn metal beneath her fingers, even as she waited for the vision to break.

Finally, the sheen vanished, and they straightened up again, blinking rapidly to readjust their vision to the darkness of the cavern from the vision they had seen. Aeolus looked a bit shaken, but it was an open question of what had caused it: the vision itself or what he had seen.

Before anyone could ask him what he had seen, Ajax lay an insubstantial hand on his shoulder and murmured into the Air Toa's ear; even though it was meant for him, the others could clearly hear, "Remember: this vision is for you alone." Aeolus glanced over his shoulder and Ajax's hand and nodded at the phantom, calm again; his startled eyes had mellowed out again.

"What be it?" asked Audra, her death-dulled amber eyes glinting slightly. From her corner in the back of the room, Cascata lifted her head, eyes fixed on the back of the Air Toa's head, though Amphitrite noticed that her gaze often flicked towards the Spear.

"He has seen his future," Ajax said, his words ringing in the chamber impressively, "and he has passed the test. The Spear is his to take."

Relief, mixed with surprise at Aeolus's courage, washed through Stiaye's group of living as Ajax led the Air Toa towards the dais that carried his legendary Spear. Cascata had deflated quite a bit, but couldn't resist what was happening; she did not move against the Toa seeking to take the Spear.

Ajax beckoned to Aeolus to touch the weapon. Almost hesitantly, like he feared the weapon would jump up and bite his hand, he reached down and grasped the Spear tightly.

Nothing happened, other than a slight crackle of energy, which raced down the shaft, up to the spear tip, and up Aeolus's arm. However, from the expression that Ajax had, that was what was supposed to happen.

"It is yours now, Aeolus of Metru Nui," he said softly, Audra and Cascata floating behind him. "Take care that no hands of darkness taint the weapon, else its power will cease to be. Use it well."

"I will," Aeolus replied, holding the Spear tightly, backing up to join Stiaye, the rest of his living compatriots, and Kronus's entourage.

"The Dark Ones will not touch you so long as you carry the Spear. Take care, and good luck," Ajax murmured as they passed through the walls that blocked the chamber from the tunnel.

"Ajax," whispered Audra, eyes fixed at the stone wall behind her Suletu, "what if they fail? What then? That halfling will be unstoppable if he gets his claws on the Spear."

Ajax didn't respond; he simply continued to look at the wall. However, Audra's mask started glowing, and she gasped as some memory that he was showing them flowed through her mind. She quickly passed it through towards Cascada, who also gasped.

"This was what you and Aeolus saw?" the Water Toa's shade asked, for once calling the Air Toa by name.

"It was clearer than any other vision that I have received through this mask; even more so than the one that lead us to cast the curse on this island. It will come to pass."

**XxX**

True to Ajax's words, the Dark Ones had been waiting outside for them to come back out so they could make another attempt on their lives. But when they saw Aeolus carrying the Spear, they let eerie wails of dismay – which sounded like sharp claws screeching across slate – escape them as they fled into the black stone that had altered them. The way cleared, Kronus and his group led Stiaye's friends back up to the Cavern.

Once they passed through the wall that separated the tunnel from the Cavern of Souls, they found the spirits that inhabited Notus awaiting them in a silent crowd. Their eyes were solemn, but in a way they were on fire as they looked upon the object that bound them here. Even as the rest of the deceased Toa Rohaya pushed their way through the crowd to join them, a path was made for them to walk through.

As they passed, a few spirits began to chant in high, echoing voices. Soon, others took up the chant, and then it wasn't long before all of the spirits were speaking, in a momentous voice that seemed to shake the cavern floor and the huts built into the walls.

"What are they saying?" whispered Aeolus to Kronus, a bit unnerved by how the ghosts never took their eyes off of him.

"They're speaking in an ancient form of Matoran," the Spirit Chieftain replied softly, not turning his head. The others in the Air Toa's group paid attention as he continued, "They give their best hopes to Aeolus in defeating Deimos, and express their desires to be allowed to move on."

"Including you?" Amphitrite asked as they took the hands of their companions; they were approaching the gate back to the Hall of Statues.

"Yes," the Gravity Toa replied. After a pause – caused by them passing through the stone wall out of the Cavern of Souls – he spoke up. "Day is approaching. Paytah, I think we need to speed up our progress back up to the surface."

The Fire Toa spirit nodded, even as they tightly formed a circle around the living, who were slightly confused by what was going on. Kronus and Paytah were facing the passageway that lead back to the entrance to the underworld, even as the spirits linked hands with each other and with Stara's group.

Paytah's Kakama glowed, and before they could ask, they were suddenly racing up through the passages: past the statues, up through the corridor, through the chamber where the three-headed Muaka had challenged them, and then right outside. The sky to the east was slowly growing brighter, heralding the rising suns.

"You better get going," Alvis said. "We can't stay aboveground while the suns are up, and Deimos will be back again to try to take the Spear from us. If you want to keep the fact its' changed hands secret, you better get back to Xi-Koro again fast."

"Right," Amphitrite said, starting to move towards the keystone that sealed the door to the underworld again. Stara, however, stood before her dead teammates, seemingly transfixed. "Will –?" she began.

"You don't need a Mask of Clairvoyance to know the answer to that, Stara. We will meet again soon." And as the suns peeked over the horizon, the nineteen ghosts vanished underground again, and the Toa of Water sealed the door to Notus's underworld again.

"Come on," Stara said after a pause. "We need to get back home before Deimos flies here again."

**XxX**

As she singlehandedly sailed the _Jaswinder _back towards the main island, Amphitrite's thoughts were back on Notus, back when she had been in the grasp of the dark ghosts, choked by an icy hold that even Japoro would have to struggle to match. Her thoughts drifted like one of her currents back to the moment that Eos had dissolved away the ice. _How is it done? Can I ever learn how to do that?_

Below in the cabin the females shared, Stiaye was asleep, but Stara was still awake, despite the fact she was tired and she had been up all night. She looked out the porthole, watching the eastern island being swallowed up by their manufactured fog. Unsurprisingly, her thoughts were with her former teammates. They were trapped in a world they had no place in now, and she felt their pain keenly; she had felt the same during her exile.

Like Stara and Amphitrite, the Toa of Air's thoughts were related to the Island of Souls (that was what _Notus_ meant in the Matoran language, he had belatedly realized), although his had a completely different passage.

Sitting on his berth, carefully turning the Spear over in his hands, he was reliving the vision that he and Ajax had shared. The strangest thing he felt was that he didn't feel any fear at all.

**XxX**

Stiaye awoke alone.

She vaguely remembered stumbling into her home in Xi-Koro while other Matoran led her other Toa friends to places where they would rest, but anything else was overtaken by her falling asleep again on her bed.

She rose from her bed, the sheets slightly scorched by from past incidents when her electricity had been generated from emotional stimuli, and looked around her hut. Half-finished artistic projects from before her time as her people's Toa were scattered about on easels like so many wooden sheets, dust and cobwebs spread in a thin layer across their surfaces. Someone had obviously had been keeping her home clean, further evidenced by the neat stacks of brushes, palettes, and paint bottles on her shelves. While she appreciated it, the fact she never kept her art supplies this neat made her feel uneasy, like she was in the house of someone else: someone who was a total stranger, but who had mimicked every project she had taken on. Grabbing her spear, which she had left leaning next to her old Rock Scramble gear, she opened the door and walked out into the center of Xi-Koro.

There were few Matoran of Lightning in the streets, and they all seemed nervous. From the position of the suns in the sky, Stiaye realized that she had slept for the entirety of the previous day, and last night as well!

After a few seconds of panicked thinking, she let it go. Obviously, Deimos had not attacked the village, or had any idea that they had the Spear, otherwise she would've been forced awake much earlier to fight him. Besides, in her haste to get home again, she and her friends had spent more time awake and less time asleep on their journey south.

Still immersed in her thoughts, Stiaye walked through the gates of her home village, only surfacing long enough to return the greetings of the guards and lookouts that were constantly scanning the skies to the south, looking for that first smear of oily black that would herald Deimos's approach.

The Toa of Lightning didn't stop walking until she reached the top of the hill that overlooked the village. From there, she could see faint outlines of the other five islands that made up the chain. Enyo's outline was the blurriest, and it was there that they would go soon, to settle their score with the halfling that dwelled there.

"Deep-anxious too, lightning-sister?"

Stiaye whirled around on the heels of her boots. Aeolus was standing a few paces behind where she was standing, the Spear of Ajax in his hands. His swords were belted to his sides as usual, and his dark red eyes were as they always were: half serious, half joking.

"You shouldn't be up here, Aeolus," she said once her surprise had faded. "You can see Enyo from up on this hill. If I can see the island, Deimos can see you – though then again, since we both have spears at the moment, it might be hard to figure out which one of us has _the _Spear," she added, a wry smile appearing.

"Ever-sorry. I deep-know I shouldn't be out here with the legend-Spear, but . . ." Aeolus's voice trailed off slightly, than he regained the use of his tongue. "I've ever-always had problems staying still when there's a fight-battle coming."

Stiaye frowned. "You've been in fights before?" She realized how obvious that was and hastily amended her question. "I mean, you fought battles you had anticipated?" Even corrected it sounded stupid.

Aeolus seemed to realize that, and gently answered, without a condescending tone. "Yes, I have. On Mata Nui, that is."

Stiaye's shoulders rose and fell as she shrugged. "You've got more experience than me, then. I've never been able to instigate a fight, or plan it out."

"Then now's the time-place to do so."

Staiye began to go down towards her village, but then paused. "In all my time as a Toa, I've never heard someone so confident before a fight – and that was before we encountered one of these things, or learned of the Spear.

"I know you're not allowed to tell me what you and Ajax saw, but . . . can you give me a sign?"

Aeolus was quiet for a moment, even as he walked to join the Lightning Toa. Then, he surprised her by lightly tracing her Matatu with a finger.

_He's _flirting _with me, _she realized, slightly shocked. And, much to her surprise, she liked it in a way.

_Give it a rest, Stiaye. Not the best time to think that way, _she scolded herself, though it sounded slightly halfhearted to her. She snapped out of her thoughts, though, when he murmured, "Trust faith, Stiaye. That's all I can really speak-tell you about that."

Stiaye didn't have anything to say to that, but the Toa of Air saved her from trying to think of something to respond to that by turning his head and noticing something down in the village. "I sight-see the others. We better go join them and plan."

Stiaye turned her head, taking advantage to put a bit of space between them again. Sure enough, she saw Japoro's white-armored shape moving towards Stara's hut, Amphitrite close behind.

"Yes," she finally said. "It's time to end it all."

**XxX**


	19. Chills

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 18

Fog. The boat they were rowing to Enyo in – they couldn't sail the _Jaswinder _there – was engulfed in the low-lying clouds. The occupants were grimly silent as the clouds swirled around and above them; the storm that Stiaye had seen rolling in two days prior had finally arrived to the Amaris, though it hadn't released the rain and lightning quite yet. A few ominous kettledrum rumblings sounded above their heads as Stiaye rowed, creating an irregular new rhythm for her.

Sitting in silence, Japoro and Stara looked out into the iron grey of their surroundings, their weapons at the ready; their thoughts ranged from overly positive to dismally negative. Aeolus and Amphitrite were in the clouds somewhere; they would join their friends when they reached Enyo.

As if on cue, the boat's prow broke through the fog abruptly, though it wasn't gone completely – some power had created an invisible tower that had pushed away the clouds, clearing it up so they could they could see the black stormclouds, bruised purple by their loads of rainwater.

Enyo lay in the center of that circle, so much like Notus in that it filled them with dread and had cliffs. However, while the fear coming from the Island of Souls had been generated by Ajax and his spirits to keep those not meant to set foot on the island away, Enyo's aura of foreboding was created from the knowledge that they were sailing directly into the claws of danger, with no excuse but shameful cowardice to err their course.

The second difference was that there was no beach to land on from the direction they had to go in from. Instead, Stiaye rowed their boat towards a cave that the sea swirled in, which served as a harbor during low tide and the few times the Xi-Matoran felt remotely interested in visiting the bleak isle. Inside, a little ledge extended from the right side of the cave, a large, narrow rock jutting up from the edge to serve as a mooring post. In the cave wall, there was the entrance to the tunnel that – according to Stara – had been carved in the distant past by Po- and Onu-Matoran, during the time when the Xi-Matoran had first been exploring the chain. The stairs within would lead to the top of the cliffs, where Deimos' fortress stood.

Stiaye tied up the boat around the rock, even as Japoro helped the Turaga of Xi-Koro out of the vessel. A Takea suddenly poked its snout out of the water and over the stone, before grasping the edge with its fins and hauling itself out of the brine, turning into Amphitrite's sleek cobalt form as she emerged from the water. Seconds later, Aeolus swooped in almost silently, Spear in hand, and landed gracefully amongst the others, completing the circle of five.

"He's in there," the Toa of Air whispered. "In the same room as Nuju. We'll have to go straight to him of we want to go ahead with the plan."

Stara looked annoyed – this new development had just made her job in this mission much harder – but she nodded, her green eyes flashing behind her new Mask of Stealth; Stiaye still wasn't used to it, even though she had been looking at it all morning. Orbs of lightning appeared in the hands of both Amari natives as they lead the way up the worn, slippery, stairs, overgrown with seaweed cultivated during the years of being flooded during high tide. (The original builders had had the sense to add a banister, though.)

Stiaye had counted 39 steps when two things changed: the seaweed receded from the stone because the waterline had never reached that height, and a large crack appeared in the left wall. It wasn't big enough to squeeze in, and it didn't seem to go anywhere but up and down. An intense smell made Amphitrite gag – it smelled like sulfur and ozone with something heedy in the mix as well; the combination nearly blotted out the crisp, fresh scent that was the undertone.

"What's that stench?" Aeolus muttered, his nose wrinkling beneath his Kadin.

Stara's mask shifted back to her Ceray, which glowed faintly as she enhanced her sense of smell. "I recognize this odor," she said, a slightly disgusted tone curling her voice. "It's energized protodermis, with ice and the smell that the Rohayan Halflings had."

"Deimos was created here, on our islands?" Stiaye asked, equal parts incensed and shaken.

"It seems that way. Apparently, Enyo concealed some store of energized protodermis we knew nothing about – but the Makuta knew."

Silence prevailed again as they resumed the climb.

84 steps later, they emerged onto the surface, their faces suddenly hit with a damp breeze from the building storm, now ready to burst from its load. Thunder rumbled above, even as silent flashes of electricity appeared in the folds of the black clouds.

Deimos' fortress lay close to them, looking something like a cross between a Muaka cat and a crouching bat somehow. A pair of slitted windows glared down at the small group like eyes. The cracks that had formed over the passing month almost seemed fitting, even though it meant bad news for the building itself. An arched doorway, just the right height for a Toa, yawned open as if to swallow them all whole – with a bit of imagination, Stiaye easily pictured fangs and a tongue.

There was finality to their thoughts as they stared at the two-story stronghold, their plan humming through their minds. The three females would enter first, Stara hiding with the Mask of Stealth so she could release Nuju, in case things didn't go they wanted it to (though no one dared voice that back-up plan). Japoro and Aeolus would enter minutes later, and while Japoro protected the two Turaga and the Toa of Lightning and Water kept Deimos's attention diverted, Aeolus would use the Spear and destroy the halfling.

It wasn't the fanciest or most subtle plan ever concocted, but it was pretty simple and straightforward, which was how they liked it.

Stiaye finally broke the silence, her fingers wrapping and unwrapping around the shaft of her weapon.

"Let's get going, then," she said, anxious to get moving and getting the plan under way. She kept her voice down, though she was pretty sure that didn't make much of a difference; their enemy probably could hear her.

"Right. The time for action has come," Stara said, her staff gripped tightly in her hands. Despite the tense, battle-ready look in her eyes, the Turaga of Lightning looked relieved that they were finally doing something to fight their enemy, after weeks of uncertainty about his next move.

"Let's roll," the Lightning Toa said, a silent goodbye in her eyes as she looked at Aeolus and Japoro – if things went south, this might be the last time she saw them alive. The two Amari natives moved like a pair of lithe panthers ready for a fight towards the door, but then Stiaye realized they were short one person. "Coming, Amph? Sometime today would be great," she said, turning to face the Toa of Water.

Amphitrite had an oddly pensive look on her face as she stared at the rocky stronghold, and seemed to have missed Stiaye's question; the Lightning Toa had to jolt her with a bit of her power to wake her up. "Sorry! Coming!" she said, flustered, darting towards the other females. However, she stopped again just a few paces from joining her sisters in arms, a troubled and torn look in her golden eyes.

And then she spun around and seemed to become a cobalt blur to Japoro, before he felt her arms wrap around him in what might be a final farewell embrace. Then things went further when a slight pressure was felt on the side of his mask.

It was over as fast as it had begun. Amphitrite released him from his hold, smiling, and then darted to join Stiaye and Stara at the entrance. The Lightning Toa had an approving look on her face; as they walked inside, she gave her friend a high-five.

An amused Aeolus watched them go. "Does that quick-happen a lot?" he asked, turning back towards the Toa of Ice.

A bewildered Japoro reached up and touched the place Amphitrite had kissed him. "That was the first time, actually."

"No accounting for the time-place, then?" the Metru Nui Toa replied, still wearing that amused look on his face. He narrowly dodged a retaliatory blow from his compatriot. "What?"

**XxX**

Amphitrite, Stiaye, and Stara walked close together down the halls of the fortress, feeling stronger and safer by feeling each other's body heat. The Toa of Water's face behind her Kanohi was warmer than usual, flushed from her rush of courage just before walking into the maw of danger. Under normal circumstances, Stiaye would've teased her friend in play, but this was too serious to let unnecessary words slip past their lips; the wrong word would alert Deimos to their plans.

Stara, who knew the fortress's layout by heart from her spiritual excursions, was leading, her appearance strange from the Volitak she was wearing over her Ceray. She was moving as quietly as she could while leading the two larger beings behind her.

They reached a large crosspath hall, where a large balcony had a single passageway leading further in. In the center of the intersection was a shallow indentation that looked like a pool that had dried up – and was right above the place where the crack in the tunnel was. No one commented at the moment, though.

Stiaye looked questioningly at the Turaga, and then pointed at the staircase. Stara nodded; that was the way. The three females carefully made their way up the staircase that was already beginning to crumble, despite the fact it had been created less than a month ago. Small pieces fell away from it and clattered to the floor below as they climbed, making them tense their muscles. There was nothing they could do about it, though; they had to go on.

They made their way up with no incident. At the top of the stairs, all of them drew their weapons, and Stara activated her Mask of Stealth and stepped behind the Toa, even as they moved through the short corridor, around the bend, and into the main chamber, trusting them to hide any clue she might cast on her presence.

Deimos crouched in the center of the room, his bloodred eyes narrowed and staring daggers at the heroes. Any light that managed to filter into the room made him seem to be made of over-saturated mud with a touch of sludge in the mix. The Muaka stripes of palest white ran over the halfling's body in even spacings, the only thing that broke up the disgustingly gothic look of his armor. His swords, their blades easily one and a half bio long and extremely sharp, were stained with the sickly purple Hiziz fluid, which hissed as it dripped to the stone floor.

Then he spoke, and his voice sent chills of fear racing through the nerves of all three females, because even through her spying Stara had never heard Deimos's voice. It was near impossible to describe – rough, like uncut stones grating against each other; metallic, like the grinding of steel cogs, yet there was something droning and robotic in his voice as well. It was fear-inspiring, terrible, and raw with menace.

"So you come, as I knew you would," he growled, his voice, stance, and appearance that of a vampire ready to steal the lifeblood of his prey. "The temptation has long been here, waiting for you to claim it. You have resisted for a long time, but it has finally worn down your walls of resistance, your Toa nature calling you here in attempts to save an insignificant life."

None of them could react to the uncaring tone the halfling had for his progenitor. They couldn't. A psychological sort of ice was chilling them to the core, like they were becoming as dispassionate as he, even as it made them unable to move.

Deimos sniffed the air, and his red eyes seemed to brighten. "The Spear has been near you," he hissed. "I can smell its taint." He stalked closer to them, just a bit, his orbs gleaming, and as he moved, the ice seemed to strengthen in them, freezing their souls.

At the moment, only Stara was unaffected by Deimos's words and chilling emotion powers. Maybe her love for Nuju made it impossible for her to be swayed against saving him, or maybe it was because she was invisible. Whatever it was, it was an advantage, and she would take it as far as she could.

Stealthily, she began to edge past the two silent, unmoving Toa, trying to get past them and Deimos, who had now fallen silent as he paced in front of the females, his coldness overwhelming the souls of Amphitrite and Stiaye as they stayed stock still.

Just when the venerable Turaga of Lightning thought she might be able to get past the creature and to Nuju, Deimos suddenly wheeled and seized her by the throat. The surprise at being caught made her lose concentration, and her mask shut down, revealing her appearance as she struggled to escape her captor's grasp.

Stiaye felt a tickle in her mind and soul, a flicker of heat in her frozen heart as she saw her old friend and village leader in the grip of her enemy. She struggled to force off the heavy curtain of apathy that shrouded her heart.

Not seeming to notice the Toa of the Amaris struggling in her mind, Deimos hissed in Stara's ear even as the Turaga tried to summon a strong-enough electric charge to force him to let go. "Kiria was right about one thing, even though she was so overconfident: she knew you could create a spectacular halfling," he hissed, a long, forked tongue emerging from his mouth and curling around her mask's earhole; Stara recoiled in disgust and horror.

That offensive gesture towards her Turaga snapped Stiaye out of her stupor and filled her with red-hot rage, dissolving the psychological ice that caked her heart and turning it to heated water that made the fires hiss and steam. Snarling angrily, she lashed out with her powers, sending raw bolts of lightning into the frame of her enemy from the tips of her fingernails.

Deimos staggered, but that was all it took for Stara to slip free out of his grip. Amph stirred slightly, her eyes slowly refocusing, but it was clear that whatever sick manipulation that the halfling had used on her was still mostly active.

Something proven when Deimos made a sharp motion with his hand.

Amphitrite's hands rose up, and a torrent of water erupted from her palms, slamming into Stiaye's face, knocking her mask askew and making the Toa of Lightning stagger backwards. It was enough time for Deimos to use his powers of magnetism to hold all three females down firmly, making it impossible for them to move even as he advanced on them, blades at the ready.

Stiaye's eyes widened, and with anger still pulsing in her body – now with fear in the mix – she completely forgot the plan. A quick application of her Matatu and she had ensnared Deimos. Another one and –

Deimos went flying backward, slamming into the wall with a great amount of force. Between Stiaye's unrelenting use of the mask and the brittle stone, he flew straight out, and his control over the three slackened to the point they could move and Amphitrite was her own master.

There was a pause, and then Stiaye cursed loudly. Through the large hole that had now appeared in the wall, she could see an extremely faint outline of the main island; the direction they had come.

A horrified thought slammed her mind, redoubled by the startled yells coming outside.

She had just sent Deimos right to Japoro, Aeolus – and the Spear.

**XxX**

And so the battle begins. In case you were wondering, Deimos is supposed to sound something like Darth Sion from KOTOR II. =P


	20. Lightning Strikes Twice

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 19

Aeolus had barely had time to haul out his swords and use them to counter the swing of Deimos's own weapons, as the halfling tore down from the broken wall above and tried to take advantage of his and Japoro's unprepared stances. Sickly purple Hiziz fluid barely missed getting past his mask's eyeholes, and the Toa of Metru Nui inwardly winced at his second brush with the liquid that had gotten him before. The Spear was strapped to his back, but the time that would take him to pull it out would cost him dearly in the end.

Japoro had managed to jump back and then start barraging Deimos with giant hailstones and rock, but the halfling barely noticed them, shrugging off the heavy blows like rainwater. With the reason for his existence within reach – assuming he could beat the Toa of Air – there was little that could distract him or make his attacks change.

Above, Stiaye grabbed the arm of her friend as the Shi-Nui native created a wave of water to carry the two of them down to the fight. Both then targeted the black halfling, but their blasts of electricity and orbs of water only served to slightly irritate their enemy. Without turning his face away from the Air Toa, a blast of plasma erupted from his hand, which had twisted against its joints to face them. It then became all the other Toa of could to evade the superheated substance. The waves, getting rougher from the looming storm, crashed up and over the cliffs where they were less steep, and drenched everybody with seawater and cooling the rock with a violent _hiss_. Nobody could find time to brush the water out of their eyes with their fight engaged; they simply battled on through their stinging eyes.

An evil glint appeared in Deimos' eyes as inspiration struck him. Before Aeolus could react, his Jutlin flared a menacing purple, and the leather straps that held Ajax's Spear to his back rotted away, turning the sturdy Rahi hide into worn bits in about two seconds. The Spear itself, no longer restrained, slipped out and onto the rock, a metallic clatter ringing out as it landed.

All eyes were instantly riveted to it. Even as Deimos savagely backhanded the Air Toa out of the way, his Kadin activated and allowed the emerald Toa to soar back to his enemy, using his winds to keep the Halfling of Ice away from the weapon.

Deimos landed on a large boulder, ice forming around his hands even as the four Toa regrouped. Aeolus sheathed his swords and replaced them with his new weapon. All five stared each other down, elemental energy swirling around their fingertips as they waited for the next move. It was Nuju's dark mirror that made it.

A blast of silvery energy ripped out from the enemy's gauntlets and flew towards them like a throwing star. More silver met it, accompanied by green, cobalt, and golden-white.

The energies mixed and then roared upwards from the place they intersected, tearing a hole in the thunderhead and sending the five tumbling like leaves in a stiff wind. Above, the storm roared, the elemental energies that had joined it finally allowing it to unleash its fury on the small beings below.

**XxX**

Stara heard the sounds of battle from outside, but couldn't head to the large gap to see how the fight was faring: she had a job to do. No longer hindered by stealth, she crossed the room, where the ugly progenitor rack hung. The controls were somewhat different from the ones she had seen some 50 years ago, but they were similar enough for her to figure out which one deactivated the rack mechanisms. She pulled the correct lever after a minute's searching, and then moved herself so she was standing in front of it.

The chains of purple-black energy that incapacitated the prisoner flickered away, slowly at first, but getting faster and faster until they vanished completely. The metal greaves around Nuju's arms and legs disengaged then, making the Turaga of Ice fall forward into Stara's arms, her staff falling to the side as she supported his deadweight.

She pulled him as far away from the hole in the wall as she could carry him, though she knew that Deimos was probably not interested in keeping an eye on his progenitor at the moment. The Turaga of Lightning looked him over quickly. His heartlight was still flashing, but it was like he was in a coma more than anything else. He lived still, but he wouldn't be able to wake up. Considering what Japoro had told her, this was to be expected, and she knew there was nothing she could do about it.

Still, there was no harm in trying.

Carefully, like she was doing this to a Muaka she wasn't sure was dead or not, Stara laid a hand over Nuju's heartlight and generated a small electric shock to try and jolt him awake. She got no response, and she didn't feel it would be safe for either of them to try again.

Nuju's ice pick was leaning in the corner closest to her, dust and a few cobwebs layering it. Stara reached out and seized it, wrapping his fingers around the smooth, worn shaft, but it didn't get any response. She could do nothing more; she could only wait and hope that things would turn out right.

Another crash came from outside, but it wasn't metal or stone: the heavens had finally opened. However, as she looked outside and saw the rain fall, she watched in surprise as the water froze into snow and ice, creating sleet.

"Snow in the Amaris. Just when I thought I'd seen everything," she muttered, drawing Nuju's body closer to hers and shivering in the unfamiliar cold.

**XxX**

The thick sheets of snow, rain, and hail made their already grueling fight a misery fit for Karzahni, especially for Stiaye, who was used to the warm climates that this region normally possessed. Still, with the lives of her friends on this island and back in Xi-Koro on the line, she pushed her shivering body on to continue her fight for her home.

**XxX**

Farther north, where the storm's arms had enfolded the largest of the islands, rain pounded down on the rooftops of the Village of Lightning. Normally, during the storm season's first big thundershower, the Xi-Matoran would be celebrating their favorite time of the year. However, this, like the storm itself, was different.

In the buildings, the population was barely breathing as they held their weapons close. It was hot and stuffy with so many others packed in with them, but there was danger outside. The sound of the rain pounding down, the smell of baked earth finally being quenched, and kettledrum growls above produced two different desires in the Xi-Matoran: one was to stay inside, since such a violent storm could only mean ill for the others fighting Deimos, and the other was their instinctive, Lightning Matoran wish to be able to race outside and let themselves get soaked, just for the sake of being able to storm-dance (as they called it).

"No, I can't see a thing outside, let alone signs of trouble," hissed Charybdis when one of the other ten crammed inside Steena's home asked. Even with the focusing lenses in her Akaku on high power, she couldn't see past the sleet to see the village walls, let alone the sea (which was hidden behind a hill to begin with, so there was really no point).

The female that had asked, an angler/off-coast trader called Scylla, looked around the place they had been told to take refuge in before the Turaga, their Toa, and the three others that had accompanied Stiaye had left. Steena herself, in an attempt to take her mind off of what was going on outside, had pulled out some of their records of the local legends and was reading them silently. She was the perfect image of a quiet, scholarly Matoran – or would, if it weren't for the crossbow leaning next to her.

If something went horribly wrong, and Deimos wasn't killed by the Toa, they had been ordered to evacuate the Amaris and flee north, maybe raise an alert on the Southern Continent about the danger if they got that far.

But that couldn't happen. It couldn't. The Air Toa had that powerful Spear from Notus; they _would _succeed. Scylla couldn't imagine them not doing so.

_Come on,_ she urged them with her thoughts. _We're counting on you to win the day._

**XxX**

For what seemed like the twentieth time since the fight began, Aeolus found himself being flung aside by a blow from the halfling's armored gauntlets, his own fingers still wrapped possessively around the shaft of Ajax's Spear. His body was battered, with many crumple marks on his proud green body plating, and the gaps in it exposed his muscle to the cold, unforgiving rain and snow. He wanted to sleep, but the only sleep he would get on this battlefield would be the sleep Deimos would provide – the sleep of the dead. He began to force himself up to his feet again; this rode on his ability to throw that Spear right, and he was determined to not botch it just because he was tired.

Even as he had tumbled back and Nuju's halfling advanced, Stiaye raced forward, body covered with her electric power, spear at ready. She used her Kanohi to hobble her enemy with bonds of mental energy, but before he could use his wings to carry himself to the Toa of Air, she unleashed her charge against him.

The electricity didn't hurt him – the only thing that had made a mark on him so far had been the explosion of elemental energy that had set off the storm, despite the fact all four of them had been throwing everything they had at him for the past ten minutes or so – but it was finally enough to make the halfling turn his gaze away from Aeolus and his powerful tool in irritation, ready to deal with the interloper. Earlier on, Japoro and Amphitrite had attempted to imprison their enemy in ice that froze the ground and in illusions that clouded the mind. At the moment, they were only just recovering from the chain lightning that had racked their bodies that Stiaye had been unable to shield them from.

However, the Lightning Toa herself had neglected to remember that as a halfling, Deimos had access to every Rahkshi power out there, including Teleportation. In a flash, he had appeared right in her face and slammed his fist in her mask, the raw power in his body sending the body of the Amari Islands' Toa flying back, hitting the bare rock that made up the island. The impact on her head made her thoughts swim. Why did she have to get up? Why not stay down for a bit? Disoriented, she was blind to the battle around her.

Japoro, Amphitrite, and Aeolus all saw Stiaye's body limply slam to the rock like she was dead, and anger made them ignore their common sense. Snatching up their weapons, they raced at Deimos. Forget throwing the Spear – Aeolus was gonna ram it down the halfling's throat.

They never got to him. Earlier on, Deimos had been able to seize Amph's Aqua Saber and Japoro's Ice Sword when they had thrust them at him. Now the handles shone with a sickly green aura beneath their fingers, even as his Poison power went to work on them. They staggered, the poison too weak to affect their minds and drive them insane, but it was enough to weaken them.

Aeolus, who had been able to keep the Spear from being touched by the halfling (else it would lose its power to destroy the halfling, if Ajax's warning before they had parted was anything to go on), kept running, ready to cut armor, but he was thwarted – Deimos flung his swords like lethal, spinning boomerangs, slashing through armor and slapping Hiziz fluid on the muscle tissue that their chestplates protected.

All three Toa – he had gotten Amphitrite, Japoro _and_ Aeolus with those throws – collapsed as the venom took effect; the poison he himself had generated had worn off rather quickly. Smiling as the metal weapons clattered to the rock, he made his way to claim the Spear.

Stiaye, still a little dazed from her impact against the stone, rose her head up and took in the scene dazedly: her three friends going into convulsions, slash marks on their torsos painted purple, and Deimos reaching for the discarded Spear of Ajax that lay beside the thrashing Toa of Air.

A thunderclap sounded, but it couldn't sound any louder than the truth that it brought with it. If Deimos contaminated the Spear with his touch, it would be useless against him. The only way to destroy him then would be to kill Nuju – if Stara would even allow it.

She stretched out her left hand, even as she used her right one to help pull herself up into a kneeling position. Just a little power and –

The legendary weapon skidded across the ground away from Deimos, sparks erupting from the grind of metal against rock that were seemingly immune to the snow and rain, and then flew into the air, spinning in the thralls of the Lightning Toa's telekinesis towards her.

The Spear of Ajax slipped into Stiaye's hand.

At the same time, a bolt of lightning erupted from the stormclouds; instead of staying in the sky, it tore down to the earth and struck the Spear – and by extension, Stiaye. Her natural resistance protected her from the worst of it, making sure that she wasn't paralyzed from the flow of energy. Dimly, she knew that the Spear's curse wasn't responsible. The rest of her was busy marveling in the sensation this gave her.

It was like she was gaining raw power from the storm itself, turning her into an outlet of electric energy that filled her to the core. It wasn't a bad feeling; it was only mildly uncomfortable. It wasn't stormshine, either, since she didn't regard her friends as her enemies as the power filled her. It was something entirely different; something that she knew in her heart was the key to Deimos' defeat.

All this was processed in a second. She opened her eyes again – she had closed them when the bolt had struck her – and saw Deimos turning towards her. Quickly, before he could teleport to her, she willed a bolt of lightning from the clouds – bigger than the one that had hit her – to knock into Deimos and send him back from her friends.

As the halfling flew backwards, landing near the sea, Stiaye shot to her feet and came into a good visual alignment with him, so when he got up, slightly dazed, he was faced with a sparking Lightning Toa, the Spear of Ajax in hand.

"Now Deimos," she said with a smile, the words coming from someplace she hadn't been aware of. "Don't you always know lightning always strikes twice?"

With that, Stiaye whirled the Spear into a wheel and then flung it, straight and true, at the halfling. As it soared uncannily fast towards its target, as fast as the lightning flashes above, electricity enveloped it, making it look all the more fearsome –

As it buried itself into Deimos's chest armor.

**XxX**

DUNDUNDUN suspense.

**Mood Music:** "Go All The Way (Into The Twilight)" by Perry Farrell

"Run This Town" by Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Kanye West


	21. From the Black

Lightning Strikes Twice – Chapter 20

For a second, Deimos' eyes seemed to widen as the Spear of Ajax buried itself in his chest armor. A shocked look of failure appeared on his face, one of hopelessness and the utter realization of sheer, cruel irony. For that small fragment of time, Stiaye almost felt sorry for the halfling.

Then it vanished rapidly, as the second blurred into the past, and reality's power took hold on the players in this game of Fate.

Deimos' armor glowed as a lattice of blue-gold electricity spread and hooked into the metal, like a giant spiderweb of energy over his black form. The Spear glowed brighter, the lightning arcing and centering on it again and again, and the Toa of Lightning felt the energy she had become an outlet for begin to be funneled through her and into the Spear, by way of the power bond between her and it.

Then the lightning turned savage, breaking out of the patterns the Spear had set, striking the halfling with bolts that grew stronger as well as faster. Then they all retreated suddenly into the core where the head of the Spear had gotten imbedded in, all of this happening within five seconds.

Then – he exploded.

The lightning erupted from his core, ripping apart the black-white armor like the fury of the storm had been unleashed within him. The Jutlin and the Spear all fell to the ground, somehow still intact as the tiny fragments of metallic protodermis fell like black rain around them. The mingling antidermis and stolen shadow hovered in the air like an ominous cloud, but only for a moment.

A bolt of lightning, called down from the storm above (by the power of the Spear? An unconscious will from the Toa? Stiaye wasn't sure), struck the gaseous mass. The skeletal light illuminated the mass – and then the antidermis vanished, completely destroyed. The shadow began to fade, and dissolved into small particles that flew away on a wind that smelled sweet to the Lightning Toa. Where they went, she couldn't tell. Her body was stiff, rigid; for some reason she could not turn away from the place where Deimos had been killed by her hand, turn away from the horizon of iron-colored waves churning in the sea.

Thrashing sounds, metal on rock, awakened her from the stupor her mind had sunk into when the lightning had been released. Painfully, she forced her fingers to disengage from the curved claws they had become after throwing the Spear. _Maybe I have been affected by the lightning strike after all,_ she thought, turning stiffly so she could see what was making that noise.

All three of her friends were in pain, their bodies shuddering as the poison worked its way into their organic tissue and making it break down into molecules ahead of time. Soon, the muscles would be gone, and the poison would turn towards their minds.

The sight yanked her mind out of the daze she was in, though for some reason she felt no panic for her friends. Maybe this had changed her, wielding the Spear. _At least we're close to water this time,_ she thought, even as her mask glowed.

Stiaye used her Matatu to lift her fellow Toa off the ground and carried them to the tide that was rushing in to claim the rocky beach, setting Amphitrite, Aeolus, and Japoro carefully into the liquid so their heads was above water but their wounds would be cleaned.

As she telekinetically held her teammate's heads above the water, Stiaye caught a glimpse of her reflection, and really saw for the first time since before leaving Shi-Nui. Back then, she had seen a relatively inexperienced, young Toa of Lightning, who had had the weight of a legacy of legends thrust upon her shoulders. Now, after the tension that had gripped her group of friends on the _Jaswinder_ . . . the encounters beneath the surface of Notus . . . this fight and the destruction of a halfling . . . and the eventual acceptance of her friend's legacy . . . all of it was shown in one, physical impact: a faint, indelible imprint on her mask, marking her forever.

_Ajax has a fire imprint,_ she thought, touching the jagged lightning print that stretched over her right eye to taper off on the left side of her face. _Now I have my own._

Her reverie was cut short by stirring; her friends were reviving. Stiaye watched the last traces of the Hiziz fluid trickle down the rocks into the sea, and made a mental note to check how bad the purple liquid was to the underwater environment, since she doubted the poison that could destroy biological parts would be kind to the flora and fauna of her island chain.

"What? Where?" Amphitrite asked weakly, sitting up and looking around through bleary eyes. She tasted something salty on her tongue and realized with horror that they were pain-induced tears. She _never_ cried, never! _Though then again, this was worse than being trapped in that one whirlpool, _she thought, trying to compose herself.

The Lightning Toa saw the tear tracks, correctly guessed what was going through Amph's head at the moment, and wisely didn't bring up the subject. "Easy, Amphitrite," she said instead. "You got a pretty big dose of Hiziz fluid. More than Aeolus got from the Frostelus weeks ago." _Was it really weeks?_

"Where's Deimos?" the Water Toa wanted to know.

"Dead." Before Amphitrite could ask the inevitable follow-up question, Japoro and Aeolus started to come around. "Before you start asking, let's get the others up on their feet again," she said hastily, not wanting to have to answer the same questions repeatedly.

The native of Shi-Nui agreed reluctantly to Stiaye's request – though she knew that Amph would attack the issue as soon as opportunity presented itself – and both went to attend to their friends. Both were slightly disoriented by the poison's effects, but they recovered quickly as Amph had.

The moment they were all standing and they had left the surf, Amphitrite pounced. "Alright, Stiaye. We're all up. Now how the Karzanhi did Deimos die, since we all know Aeolus didn't throw the Spear?"

Knowing that this would be mentally draining to her – she longed to get inside the fortress, if only to escape the sleet, but she felt she should leave Stara and Nuju alone for a while – Stiaye pushed through and told them everything that had transpired, from her taking the Spear up to that very moment. Naturally, Japoro and Amph started bombarding the Amari Toa with questions that she had trouble finding answers to. During this, her eyes flicked towards Aeolus, who had not offered one inquiry throughout the session. There was no shock, no surprise, not even a flicker of confusion, lurking in his dark red eyes. It was almost like he had known this would happen – which, considering what he had done to get the Spear, wasn't that big a stretch.

_What do you know, Toa of Air?_

Finally, Stiaye decided that she'd had enough for the time. "Guys," she said softly, cutting off one of Japoro's more elaborate theories on how she had pulled it off, "this is fascinating to talk about, it really is, but not out in this storm." A gust of wind, accompanied with a blast of hail, abbreviated her sentence. "I think we should head back to Xi-Koro with the Turaga, and pick it up there."

"We should go see-speak Ajax," Aeolus said, startling Amphitrite slightly as he spoke for the first time since they had left the surf. "Once the storm is over-gone, we should ask him what happen-occurred."

This garnered a unanimous agreement, since they were confident that Ajax had a better knowledge of his own weapon than they did. "Should we use our powers to calm the storm, so we could go tonight?" Amph asked, eager to go (she liked the sleet as much as Stiaye, though she would never admit it).

Stiaye herself laughed softly. "Not unless you wanted to make my people very unhappy. This is the first true storm of the rainy season, and we always celebrate it as it churns above us."

"Can we at least get rid of the ice?"

"That would be for the best. The wildlife here aren't used to the cold."

Japoro looked chagrined – he preferred the sleet to the normal temperatures of the Amaris – but he nodded and stood beside the Toa of Water, while Aeolus and Stiaye retrieved their weapons. Stiaye noticed Amph's hand settle over Japoro's own, and hid a smile by bending to retrieve her Electric Spear.

In the midst of all that happens, life goes on.

**XxX**

Darkness. Darkness all around. He never would've admitted it when he was a novice, all those years ago, but he wasn't desensitized to the nightmares his prison gave him, not even after all this time.

How much time had passed by now, anyway? Weeks? Months? Years, maybe? What did it matter, in such a dark place? In the abyss, time had no meaning; there was no reason for it to exist.

A break finally came; the one he had been longing for but had never voiced, in case his wish was jinxed: a crack appeared in the seamless walls that did not exist, letting wonderfully bright light leak in.

Was this death that was coming to claim him? After all this pain and torment in the darkness, death would be a mercy, but he would not die in the shade. Even if this was a new torment his jailer had devised, release, or just another dream, he wouldn't ignore the breach. Weakly, he dragged his body forward towards the opening gulf, his being aching from torments that had not existed. While this was all in his head, the soul remembers pain.

The moment he was in the white gap, the light winked out like it had never existed, black reclaiming his vision. He was about to abandon this as yet another false hope, but then he realized that instead of the flawless, smooth walls-that-did-not-exist of the prison, this black was flawed, irregular, like rock instead of shadow.

How odd. He blinked several times, trying to clear his eyes of any illusions.

Now his ears heard something: a voice, faint, but getting louder and clearer with every word. It didn't sound like his jailer, although he could change his voice to fool him.

"Nuju. Nuju, wake up. Now."

He swore that voice was familiar! For the life of him, though, he couldn't place where he had heard it.

"I'm serious here. Wake up, or I'll have to shock you again, and it's not good for me to use up all this electricity."

Shock? Electricity . . . those terms brought up images that seemed related to the words, though he couldn't see a visible correlation: A black cave, with growths of crystal, metal, and stone sparkling in the little light there was . . . three terrible beings, all too similar to his brothers and sister, two of them now long dead . . . a quiet purple-black Toa with gold eyes, whose Iden made him look older than he truly was . . .

A female, her eyes as green as emeralds; her armor like lightning erupting from a stormcloud; her shoulders hunched like an invisible burden was sitting on them; voice bitter from a thousand wrongs; her laughter rare, but as cold as his element.

A flash of pain filled him abruptly, his body clenching as he tried to endure it. A new memory of a similar pain was awakened . . . a clear night, the sky carpeted in diamonds, stone beneath his feet, and none-too-gentle shocks racing over his body, and the one he held in his embrace.

He flicked his eyes towards the place the voice was coming from. His vision was still blurry in places, but it didn't take long for him to focus.

Gone was the hard, hawk-like gaze that contained embers of centuries-old anger and hurt; the green eyes had softened slightly. Her body was smaller, now; her change from Toa to Turaga forty-five years ago had reduced her proud stature. She looked little like the brusque, mysterious Toa he had become infatuated with so quickly, though the ghost of that powerful, justice-loving exile still existed in her.

Then she spoke again, and it quickly became clear that the powerful rebel still lived, overshadowed slightly by the responsible Turaga that had taken root after her exile had ended.

"Glad to see you finally came to visit, Nuju," she said, her mouth twisting into her familiar, wry half-smile. "Although, your timing was less than tasteful – and we can't say we liked your traveling companion."

Nuju groggily looked around, too tired to take mock offence at her ribbing. "Deimos? Where is he?" he demanded to know, unable to think of anything other than his halfling . . . and his beloved, sitting beside him.

"Dead. Stiaye and some of her friends took care of him." Stara rose a hand to forestall the questions that Nuju would have . . . once they managed to get to his tongue. "Don't ask about it now – the racks' messed with your system. It has a more lasting effect on us Turaga, it seems."

Lasting, indeed – Nuju was sure that it would be some time before he could sleep without fear of nightmares; unlike his friends, who had been able to sleep easy after being released. He had so many questions buzzing around in his brain, but only one made it to his lips; the one doubt he had to lay to rest, for good or ill. "Is this real, Stara? Or is it just in my head?"

Stara sighed, a breathy sound that fit the stormy personality she had presented fifty years before. A crackle of electricity filled the room as she lifted her right hand, sparks flying from her clenched fist. "There are two ways this can be resolved, Nuju – the nice way or the nasty way. Which one you choose is up to you."

**XxX**


	22. Epilogue

Lightning Strikes Twice – Epilogue

The _Jaswinder _slipped through the dark waters of the Amari archipelago like a giant sea creature gleaming dully in the moonlight. There was a difference in its passage tonight, though – the crew was in no hurry. There were no enemies to chase, no dangers to confront. They were simply gliding under the stars to return to Notus. Stiaye wasn't sure about what had transpired on Enyo, and how she had been able to use the Spear, but she knew she had to go to the Island of Souls anyway. It had served its purpose, and it was time it was given back to Ajax, its creator and rightful owner.

Even as she stood behind the helm, Stiaye's thoughts were wandering. After they had destroyed Deimos and they had informed the rest of Xi-Koro of his death – and after the storm had died down – they had piled what remained of the halfling in the center of his crumbling fortress, tore it down around his remains, and set it alight. They weren't quite sure, but according to the tablets Japoro had translated on the journey south, burning what the halfling had mainly inhabited would destroy the evil taint that would otherwise spread and force the Matoran of Lightning off their home isle.

Thinking of Japoro made her smile. After they had been done on Enyo and all had returned to the village, her people had started what had been promised to be a very rousing party, celebrating the destruction of the halfling and the beginning of the storm season. After living for three weeks in fear, they had a cause to celebrate again. As the party had begun to reach critical mass after sunset, she, Aeolus, Stara, and Nuju had slipped off to the _Jaswinder _to make the pilgrimage to the black island. Japoro and Amphitrite had stayed behind; after the events on Enyo, or Halfling's Isle as it was beginning to be called, Japoro had seemed to surrender to what was inevitable between them.

Staiye's hand brushed her mask, her fingers automatically lingering on the new ridge that had appeared the day before – the day the lightning had struck her and she had destroyed Deimos. Ever since she had touched the Spear, she had found that her powers had seemed to increase: she could faintly sense the electrical pulses that made muscles move and transmitted information to a being's brain. It was only faint, but time and practice would tell what other abilities the contact had unlocked.

Seeing abruptly that they were nearly at Notus' shore, she eased off the power until they had stopped altogether, where Aeolus helped her carry them all over the black water to the foot of the similarly-colored cliffs.

Even as they trooped up the path, her eyes wandered to the back of their little parade. Ever since the events on Enyo, Nuju and Stara had hardly been apart, he still suffering from the effects of his prison and making it hard for him to sleep peacefully. When Stara had expressed her desire to join them on Notus, it went without saying that he insisted on coming along as well.

They crested the cliff trail and moved in towards the plateau's center. They had intended in opening the cave again and journeying to the Cavern of Souls, but as they neared the stone formations, it became clear that the haul was unnecessary: they had come to them.

All the ghosts that inhabited the caves below, save only the Dark Ones, had left the confines of the rocky island's caves and stood before the entrance. At the crowd's head stood Ajax, Cascata, Audra, and the spirits of the Toa Rohaya. Kronus and Cascata were standing beside each other, but the Water Toa's shade didn't seem to mind standing beside her former rival now.

The four living souls stopped about three bio away from the ghosts. That distance became one, as Ajax and his two deceased friends crossed the gap between the two parties.

"You've done it," he said, pride in the Fire Toa's eyes as he looked at the similarly-marked Toa of Lightning.

"I've done it," she agreed. "But how was it done? Aeolus was the one who passed your test, not me."

"That is true. He looked into the near future and saw what was fated to occur," Audra said, her Suletu shining dully in the moonlight. "Do you wish to see what he did?"

Stiaye looked quickly at the Air Toa and the two Turaga. The latter pair were silent, but Aeolus seemed to silently urge her on. Returning her gaze, she nodded. "Yes, I would."

Then the present world faded, replaced with another image . . .

_She saw Deimos, his red eyes hard as he concentrated. She saw her own body slumped on the ground further back and felt confused, but only for an instant: she realized she was seeing the vision the way Aeolus had, through his eyes._

_The Spear was in her hands, but they were moving without her permission as she ran at the halfling. It was only a vision, nothing more, but she still felt fear when the purple-tinted swords flew at her, slashing at her breastplate. _

_Pain took her then: pain familiar yet alien, tearing through her body like sharp daggers. She collapsed, feeling the Spear slip from her emerald fingers as she was thrust into pain's eager hold, delighted at its new game. Her body slammed down on the bare rock, trying to throw off the pain and regain her feet, but it dug its claws deeper into her biological parts. _

_Through glazed eyes she saw Deimos reaching down for the discarded Spear, and weakly attempted to take it back. Then it shot away from both of them, sparks flying as it slipped into a new pair of hands._

_Lightning flashed, and her eyes cleared just long enough to see her vision-double holding the Spear, then another flash chased her into darkness . . ._

Stiaye gasped as Audra released her mind from the hold of the mask's power, heartlight flashing as the memory of the pain echoed in her again and again. She felt Aeolus's comforting hand grip her shoulder reassuringly, but she had never felt so unlike herself.

Still breathing hard, she tightened her hold on the Spear as she addressed Ajax again. "What does that mean?"

Cascata surprised her by answering instead. "Aeolus saw what would happen to him, and what would happen to the Spear. He passed the test, and took the Spear – but he only acted to carry it." She looked at Aeolus, as if seeking an assurance that she hadn't offended him with her words, and what she saw on his face seemed to give permission to go on.

"He saw this future – and accepted it. With that, he could carry the Spear without ill effect, but he could not use it the way you can, the way Ajax could, since he knew you would. Destiny has dictated it: you are the true wielder of the Spear."

Stiaye was quiet, rather stunned by the bluntness of it all. She had expected something else (though that "something else" was still unknown to her), and instead she had gotten this thrown at her. Her breathing was steady, but her mind was a-flutter with indescion . . . but she knew there really wasn't one to be made. She had used the Spear; she was marked as Ajax was marked, though not nearly as strongly as the Fire Toa. She was destined.

"Then so be it."

A peaceful look appeared on the faces of the dead, even as a gentle, almost sighing wind slipped over Notus. Something seemed to vanish from the ghosts, but before that something could be identified, all four of the living were startled to see all of the shades starting to fade away; their bodies were becoming something less than mist and soul. Some had already vanished to the point where they were nearly invisible.

"What is this?" asked Aeolus, his eyes wide.

Ajax's smile seemed to become more solid than ever, even as his body faded. "When Audra, Cascada, and I bound ourselves and those that followed to the Cavern of Souls, we did not wish to condemn the others to the senseless guarding of an object, even one as powerful as the Spear." There was no possessive quality in his voice or his words as he referred to the weapon he had forged, clearly indicating that he no longer considered himself its owner. "When someone became marked as I had once been, by using the Spear, the curse we created would shatter, and all the spirits on Notus would be free to move on."

Stiaye opened her mouth again, but Audra cut her off. "You do us all a great service by undoing our spell. This existence is a mockery of a real life; being trapped in limbo, not being able to move forward or back, just . . . existing. After all these near-meaningless years, it is a blessing to truly die." The expressions on the faces of those that were vanishing echoed her words, peace in their orbs as their souls lost the little physical substance they had had.

It was Aeolus that said the final farewell, his voice not congealed with chutespeak for once. "Rest in peace."

Ajax nodded, than seemed to relax, along with the majority of the spirits. Like they were suddenly in a hurry, the spirits began departing at a fleeter rate, much faster than those that had already gone. And with each ghost that abandoned Notus to ride the cosmic wind that was taking them away, the four living felt a lightening in their souls. The negative atmosphere that the spirits had been generating was fading with the spirits themselves; it became less the Island of the Dead and more like an island in general.

Finally, after what could've been an hour or five minutes, the black plateau was nearly devoid of ghosts, save nineteen: the spirits of the Toa Rohaya. They were fading like their brethren had, but they were doing so at a slower pace, like they were holding themselves back through sheer willpower. It didn't take a scholar to understand why they were lingering, so Stiaye and Aeolus retreated, so Stara and her former teammates could say their final farewells in peace. Nuju joined them: loathe as they both were to break their connection, he saw this was something private that Stara had to do alone.

"This is where we truly part, Stara," Alvis said, her vibrant voice strong despite the divide between her and her sole living teammate.

Stara stifled a choking sob as she looked at her friends. They were all arranged in their arc formation, with Kronus, Eos, Atlas, and Ares making up the forefront – as the founders of the Toa Rohaya, they were obligated to stand in front. A place opposite of Alvis and between Amaya and Calhoun was empty; her spot, had she died her teammates.

"I didn't want any of you to die," she said softly. "None of you." It was a lame pair of sentences, but it was all she could manage.

"We know," Egan said softly. "And there is no need to apologize. Destiny ultimately chose for us to end on Rohaya, and you had nothing to do with our fates."

Kronus knelt so he was at eye level with the Turaga of Lightning, and then pressed something into her hands. When she looked, a pair of dull-silver charms were in her hands, with the symbol of the Toa Rohaya – a volcano, a sword, and a compass – pressed into them.

"This is soulmetal," the Gravity Toa's shade said softly. "It's a very rare metal that only the dead know about. Give one of these to Nuju, and make sure he keeps it with him. And when the day comes that you know it must be used – and you will know it, in your heart – bring it to the Elemental Well and fling it into the depths. Tell no one of this," he said urgently.

Stara couldn't make head or tails of this final command, but nodded silently in agreement, tucking the charms into a belt pocket. Kronus nodded and then stood, saying his last words to the Turaga.

"And so we leave this world, this time for good. May we meet again someday, my friend, but let it not be soon, so you can enjoy more of life than we did." Then, the final ghosts of Notus vanished, and the last of the fog lifted from the island's atmosphere.

There was quiet for a moment, broken by Stara's voice, strong even with tears of another farewell threatening them. "Let's go home."

**XxX**

Amphitrite's eyes were strangely heavy, like each had been carved from granite, but she slowly managed to open them. In her mind she was back in Shi-Nui, in the building she and the other Toa of her team called home. On a normal day, she was the fourth person out of bed, with Japoro, Castor, and Stiaye all getting up earlier. Once she was able to string a coherent sentence together, they would all march upstairs again and haul Enki and Eurus – their resident Rip Van Winkles – out of their shared room and down the stairs. Their methods ranged from Stiaye zapping them with her lightning, Castor hanging them out the window by their ankles with his plants, and she herself dumping cold water on their heads. The methods had gotten crazier and crazier, until Japoro had cooked up something they used every morning, much to the annoyance of the two sleepers.

"_You guys ready?"_

_Another of Enki's floorboard-rattling snores rumbled out, and the Water Toa wrinkled her nose distastefully. She was deep sleeper simply because of the Earth Toa's snoring was so loud. Only his roommate Eurus seemed immune to it – though then again, since he had fallen asleep in the war to the sound of explosions, he probably was used to it. They had always considered soundproofing the walls, but they never seemed to get around to it._

"_Anything to make Enki shut up," Stiaye replied, her expression one of concentration as she knelt before the lock. Since their teammates kept barging in to wake them, the two male Toa kept changing their door locks in an attempt to keep them out. However, they didn't know that the Lightning Toa was something of an expert when it came to lock-picking, courtesy of Stara's tutoring, and she had taught Castor, Amphitrite, and Japoro the basics._

"_Great. How's the lock coming?"_

_No sooner had the words left Japoro's mouth than the door obediently clicked open. "Done," she smirked, pushing it all the way in._

_In the room, Enki's snoring was even louder than it was in the outer hall. The Ice Toa quickly wheeled his invention inside, tied a string to the firing mechanism, and backed outside to the other Toa, threading it through the keyhole and closing the door most of the way as he did._

"_Ready?" he asked of his teammates, who all nodded. Once the earplugs had been passed out, Japoro counted down, "In five – four – three – two – one!" and then yanked the string._

_The cord went slack, and there was a loud BANG from inside the room. There was a loud thud from the other side of the door – either one or both of them had fallen out of bed – and Enki's snoring got replaced with cursing from both Toa._

_Laughing, Castor pushed the door open again and surveyed the scene. Enki had tumbled out of his bed and had landed on his back, taking half the covers with him. The Air Toa was half-in and half-out of bed, his legs tangled in the bedspread, and both were cursing up a storm._

"_That's one way to wake up," snickered the Water Toa as she peered around the doorframe._

"_Tomorrow," Eurus said, his voice slightly muffled by the rug he had faceplanted into, "I'd rather that Stiaye came in and zapped us."_

Smirking at the memory, Amphitrite opened her eyes all the way. She was still tired, though – and considering the fact that the party had gone on until long after midnight, she really couldn't be blamed.

A shadow passed by the eastern window, briefly cutting off the golden light filtering in through the glass. Though she was quite content to stay underneath the blankets, she ordered herself to move. Groaning, she dragged herself off the mattress and over to the window, squinting through the sun glare in time to see Stiaye trudging out of Xi-Koro.

Curiosity overrode her desire to go back to sleep, and she quickly retrieved her sword and left the hut, trailing after the Lightning Toa.

The path her friend took lead deep into the foothills of the main Amari Island, which Amphitrite had recently learned was called Amaria, after the Eldar Toa that had led the original colonization efforts of the chain. After about five minutes of walking, Stiaye – who still seemed to not have noticed her friend following her – turned down a side path that was lined with tall deciduous trees, their branches and trunks somehow leaning over in the still air, creating a natural archway over the path.

Further down, past the trees that were bending like they were caught in a perpetual windstorm, the soft heather beneath the Water Toa's boots began to give way to stone as they drew closer to a cliff face, jutting up from the roots of the mountains nearby. A trickling of liquid reached her ears, breaking the quiet but making the atmosphere seem more tranquil, more peaceful.

Finally, they reached their destination: a grove of trees that were slap against a hollow in the cliff, worn away by erosion. The trees were large and close together, their branches stretching out to form a ceiling of leaves. It covered the ground where the heather had been covered by crumbling stone that had rained down from the cliffs, choking the plants like it itself lived.

A stream flowed down the mountain peaks, pouring from a bolthole that was in the middle of the rock face, pooling into a deep hollow in the ground beneath it, and then it flowed away to place even the Toa of Water could not tell. All around the spring were Matoran letters carved into the stone, some so worn away that she couldn't read them from her position.

Only one thing in the natural temple seemed artificial, standing out in the naturally beautiful Kini. Near the exact center of the grove was a circle of raised white stone, carved with designs like the cliff wall. It had no bottom, but seemed to go on down into the earth forever.

Amphitrite looked at Stiaye questioningly, wondering if it was alright to go closer to this strange structure (and wondering if the Lightning Toa had even noticed her), but Stiaye nodded; apparently she had. "Take care that you don't fall into it, though," she added softly. "Else you'll fall forever and into the universe's core."

Shivering at the thought, Amphitrite moved forward to kneel beside the strange structure. The stone was worn with age and rain, but the carvings into the white stone were able to be distinguished enough that by tracing it with her fingertip, she could read them.

The words surprised her, because they spoke of a way so alien to her, she had a hard time reconciling herself to it. Unlike the ways she knew, Stiaye's people were so different, chosen by their predecessors' wills instead of those of Destiny, and instinctively knowing when their Destiny was fulfilled . . . the Water Toa yanked her hand away, marveling.

"Nuju was the only one not to react like that," the Lightning Toa said, now sitting at the roots of a great tree. Her spears were laid beside her, eyes calm. "It's why we rarely tell others about how it is done here."

"I can't say I blame you," Amphitrite said, nestling down into another tree's roots. Not sure what to say next, she looked down into the heather, twisting her fingers in the blades, uprooting a few of them idly.

Footsteps came from the path, audible even on the heather, and then Amphitrite realized why Stiaye hadn't given a sign that she knew was following: in this quiet Kini, it was easy to tell when someone was on the path with you. Neither Toa was able to do anything other than look towards the path, though; they were both perfectly content to stay right where they were.

Japoro and Aeolus walked into the clearing, as subdued as they by the atmosphere surrounding the Elemental Well. Apparently they had been following the Lightning Toa as well, and had just gotten out of bed to do so; both had half-open eyes and were slouching.

Japoro had an expectant look on his face despite the clear fact he was only half-awake, and Amphitrite tried to figure out why. It came back to her five seconds later. "So?" she said, addressing Stiaye and Aeolus.

"So what?"

Amphitrite and Japoro stared at the Lightning Toa like she had grown another head. "What do you think we mean? What happened last night?" the Water Toa demanded.

Laughing slightly, Stiaye quickly filled in her friends about what had happened on Notus. Both listened raptly, with the cobalt Toa crooning slightly as she heard what had happened to Ajax and his ghosts.

"Apparently, the Spear is mine to use," she finished. "Maybe this is my destiny; to use it and finish the job that was started long ago and finish off the Brotherhood's remnants.

"I'll come with you and Japoro when you go back to Shi-Nui, but I won't stay there for very long. The sooner I leave, the less likely I'll get talked out of this."

"I'll come with you, Stiaye," Aeolus said softly, rising to his feet and facing the Toa of Lightning.

"Aeolus – I already decided; I'm doing this on my own."

"And I'm not going to let you get dead-killed by yourself."

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, either," Amphitrite said brazenly, lifting her chin in defiance of her friend's choice, no longer tired. Beside her, the Toa of Ice nodded in agreement.

"Look, I'm already taking a risk with this. I don't want you to go down with me."

"That's the price we pay for adventure. I told you that at the beginning of all this, and I'm still willing to pay it," the Water Toa shot back.

Stiaye looked imploringly at Japoro, trying to make him talk the other two out of this. The white and gunmetal Toa took his time in answering, but he finally said, "Stiaye, while I was translating those tablets we got, I forgot to tell you something."

"And what's that?" the silver and gold Toa asked suspiciously.

Japoro shrugged casually. "It told how we can sense Makuta and halflings from distances."

Excitedly, Stiaye darted to his side and gripped his shoulders, not noticing that she had hauled him off his feet. "How do you do that? Tell me, please!"

Japoro winced slightly as a kink appeared in his joints. "I will on two conditions."

"And what are they?"

"Well, for one thing, you need to put me down. And two, you have to accept the fact we're all coming with you."

Stiaye released the Ice Toa, crestfallen. "And there's no way I can get you to tell me otherwise?"

"None at all."

Now she looked highly annoyed. "You don't fight fair, Japoro. You know that?"

"Yeah, I do; Enki and Eurus tell me that every morning I use the cannon as their alarm clock. But still, if it's the only way we can get you to accept that we're coming . . ." Japoro let the sentence trail off, the implication clear. Stiaye glared at her friends for a long moment, and her friends just met her gaze, arms folded. After a long moment, she sighed.

"You still don't fight fair," she repeated sourly. However, she couldn't hide a small smile that tugged at her lips.

**XxX**

Back in the village, silence still reigned; many of the Matoran still slept, either exhausted or hung over from their party the night before. In her hut, however, Stara was awake, though not out of bed yet. She was suspended in that state of awareness halfway between dreams and reality, sleep and wakefulness. Her left arm was aching from the stretch between her bed and the cot she had set up earlier. (She had insisted that Nuju take her more comfortable bed, since it might help him recover from the trauma faster.) The only way he had managed to fall asleep peacefully, though, had been when she had reached out and taken his hand, reassuring him that she was next to him.

Like her Toa heir, she had been thinking. Her tribe wasn't known for being pensive, like the Ice or Water Matoran were. Nor were they overly impulsive, like the Ta- and Le-Matoran were. Their eagerness of action and excitement was tempered by their love for justice and level heads, though they were noticeably shorter-tempered than the Ga-Matoran were; more inclined to be ruled by their bias and emotions. Thinking ahead wasn't a trait they shared either; since the future always changed, and never followed one set path, they preferred to focus on the now.

Thanks to her less-than-stellar rap sheet, Stara was a rare exception to that rule. Though she couldn't read the thoughts of others, she had instinctively sensed what Stiaye's new task was now that she bore the Spear. The thought satisfied her. Though the Lightning Toa had never voiced it, the Turaga had known that Stiaye had fretted about living out her time as a Toa in Stara's shadow. This Duty would secure her a spot outside her own shadow, creating her own legacy.

Nuju was another matter. Japoro's translations hadn't told her how long it would take for the trauma to fade, so the date for his return to Metru Nui was still unknown to anyone. Smug satisfaction filled her; it meant he had a perfect excuse to stay here with _her_ for a good amount of time.

_So be it, _she thought, shifting and then sinking back into blissful unconsciousness. _So be it._

**XxX**

**Mood Music:** "May It Be" by Enya, "Dreams of an Absolution" by Remix Factory

**Author's Note:** And with that, _Lightning Strikes Twice_ is complete. My thanks go out to all my readers and reviewers, in particular Akaku (for coming up with the idea that started it all) and Japoro (for donating his character, and putting up with everything I did to said character =P).

In the (hopefully) near future, the sequel to this story will be released. I'm thinking sometime in the summer, though this may be changed. You can read a sneak peek in my library, if you wish. (The link is found in my profile.)

If you have any questions about this, let me know and I'll be happy to answer, assuming I can do so without spoiling anything.

Thanks again!

-Inferna Firesword


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